String Instruments and Notebooks
by InazumaFrost
Summary: Often in life, you don't get to chose your allies. Izuku Midoriya would learn this fact after being assigned with Kyouka Jirou, a classmate he had never previously spoken to, for a defense scenario exercise. They probably expected things to end there, but mutual curiosity laid the foundation for an unlikely friendship that would evolve differently for the two heroes in training.
1. Waves

Waves:

It had been a minute at most since Izuku entered the area for the day's physical assignment: a run down, spacious 1-story building with 4 civilian dummies scattered throughout the structure. The assignment was supposed to represent a situation where villains would strand heroes and civilians alike under a continuous assault without means of escape. One pair of students would protect the civilians from a wave of Villain Robots similar to those used in the entrance exam, until another pair could arrive to extract the remaining civilians and escape the area.

A physical assignment was enough to make Izuku uncomfortable, as there was not much he could do without said quirk injuring his body, and those robots despite being the weakest variety available would still be impervious to quirkless attacks. While it was possible that the use of a single charged finger flick would be enough to take down one of the attackers, there was no way to know just how many could come. And the building was not in a good state, so a bad move could cause the structure to come crashing down on the civilians, so until the other pair arrived-

"Hey, Earth to Midoriya. Can you hear me?"

"Wha-Aaahh! I- Yeah, I hear you." Midoriya said with a leap backwards. He had started to mutter to himself without noticing his assigned companion standing just a few meters away from him. To emphasize the scenario of the exercise, Aizawa picked the defender pairs at random, regardless of quirk compatibility or existing relationships. A surprise attack on a patrolled area would require the heroes to be able to work efficiently with one another in the ensuing emergency despite not knowing one another, which was something that Izuku knew quite well after being forced to fight for his survival alongside Asui and Mineta in the USJ incident.

That didn't mean he was prepared to work with people that, if he was being honest with himself, all he knew about was that they were in the same class as him and a faint understanding of how their quirk worked.

"Good. For a moment I thought that you had fallen asleep with your eyes open. That would make you quite the sleep-talker."

Izuku was not sure of what to think about Kyouka Jirou, the user of the Earphone Jack quirk. He had no previous interaction with her, not out of avoidance of her or any dislike between the two, but from a lack of need from either to acknowledge the other's existence. All he knew about her was that she was informal and not above being less than polite at others, especially Kaminari. He was not sure on how to respond to her show of sarcasm, still recovering from the scare she had given him. "S-sorry about that." Midoriya forced out. He may have fought villains not so long ago, but the prospect of talking to a girl still made him stammer a lot, especially if the girl in question seemed able to mess with him for any small thing.

"Don't be, I had to force myself to stop you. Your famed muttering might be pretty useful as well as entertaining if you can listen to it properly." A smirk formed in Kyouka's mouth for a second before returning to its usual neutral expression. "Those robots are not a big deal. One stab from these and they just fizzle out." On cue, the jack of her right ear rose up to her head before it shot out and cracked a robust piece of concrete. "It's not like you failed the entrance exam, didn't you?" Izuku's face went white like a sheet when she mentioned the exams. It was true that he had passed them, but he only managed to do so by saving Uraraka from one of the massive zero point robots, breaking his right arm and both legs to do so, and risking a lethal fall afterwards. He hadn't even come close to incapacitating one of the other robots and while he was considerably stronger than before due to his ten-month training, he still was unable to put holes in solid concrete with his quirkless strength alone. If they were going to pass this trial, then Izuku would need to break a few bones. Again.

Neither had time to continue the conversation though, before a voice blared through the building

 **" Team C Civilian Defense Trial: Start!"**

Followed by the sound of metal crashing against the pavement of Ground Beta. The "villains" had been released outside, giving the unlikely team a green light to move freely outside of the building, as well as start moving the dummies without damaging them. During his muttering, Izuku was able to come up with a strategy that would buy them some minutes, but it would rely on Kyouka's quirk working as he thought it would. "Jirou, can you hear where the robots are coming from?"

For a moment he thought that he saw Kyouka's eyes widen slightly, before she stabbed her jack through the wall to their right, being the only outer wall in the room they were in. She stood still for a second before pointing towards the direction she was facing, behind Izuku. "The closest ones come from there." Of course there would be more than a handful of them, but at least that gave Izuku a general idea of where would be safe for now.

"Alright, can you keep them out while I move the dummies to the back?" When the two entered the building, Izuku took note of where certain rooms were located, as well as which halls were impassable for the two of them without having him use One for All. While the storage room opposite from where the robots seemed to be coming from wasn't failsafe, it was in the interior of the building, meaning that the villains would not be able to get a lucky shot on it, and it just happened to be opposite from where the closest ones were coming.

"You do know this is not the first time I've faced those, right? I'll be fine." With that, the two of them dashed in opposite directions to prepare for the assault. A minute later, as Izuku found the first civilian, any doubts he had about Kyouka being able to handle the wave outside were dispelled as he heard whiplashes followed by a faint fizzle and the crashing of metal into the ground, all heard through the earpiece they were given. _Incredible that even a quirk considered "weak" by hero standards is still capable of taking down iron machines,_ he gushed aloud in his mind as the exact sound sequence repeated every few seconds.

Midoriya recalled where the civilians were located and one by one moved them to the storage. A pair of the dummies was surrounded by debris from particularly worn down parts of the building, delaying the green haired hero a few seconds. They weren't particularly heavy, but they were spread throughout the building and took him a few minutes to locate and move them all to the storage. He had settled down the last dummy into a corner when two noises startled him: A sharp thud coming from the earpiece followed by what Izuku could only describe as an distorted electric boom, and a sequence of metal grinding against the floor could be heard through the halls of the building.

"Urgh… that should be the last of them for now."

"Jirou, are you alright?" Izuku delayed for a moment despite the possibility of a new wave coming closer to him. It wouldn't take more than a moment to make sure the rocker teenager was all right, and the new arrivals still sounded far away from him.

"I know what I signed up for, focus on the robots closing in… great, I can't single out where they're coming from, other than far away from me." Izuku understood then what the initial clang came from, a direct hit on Kyouka's head near one of her ears that managed to weaken her hearing and quirk for the moment. For now, he was alone in finding the villains closing in on the building, and without a moment to spare he ran towards the sound of metal and engines approaching through the halls. _How did they get inside? The only opening I saw when we arrived here was the demolished wall in one of the smaller rooms at the side… Oh._

An opening was made in the building so that a wave of bots could make a more silent entrance. The initial wave was unleashed to distract pairs so that they would leave the rest of the building defenseless while the villains attacked the civilians with impunity. By the time the attack was noticed, it was possible that only one or two civilians would still be uninjured, and that was if they were lucky enough to have the dummies spread out at the beginning. In this situation, even an exceedingly powerful hero would be unable to protect all the civilians from an attack on multiple fronts, thus a spread out team would be far more capable to defend the area.

"Jirou, stay where you are! Keep trying to hear for more waves of enemies that could approach."

"Don't need to tell me twice."

The noise drew nearer as Izuku ran through the halls, his heartbeat increasing as he thought on how to deal with the threat. _I'll have to make each strike count. If Jirou can deactivate the low threat villains with a stab of her jacks or whatever that noise was, then even just one finger of mine should be enough to demolish one or even more of those… but these walls could crumble if I were to send one of those robots flying towards them, and too much damage to the structure would cause the building to collapse. I'll have to take as many of them down in as few shots as possible!_

Izuku was running down one of the halls towards the room before he heard a loud crash towards said area. His senses now more alert, he continued through the path and reached a turn. He looked to his left and noticed that the situation might have been worse than he expected: in a large space, the villains were crawling through several openings in the walls around the area, moving in different directions. While none of them happened to be facing towards him, that only increased the chance that, if he did not take care of them right away, or at least drew their attention to him, they would scatter and make finding them much harder, increasing the odds that a stray could reach the civilians and fell them in an instant. _Crap! I hope this works…_ Izuku looked at the ruined area in front of him, noticing walls and arches around the robots in a battered state, yet they were still standing. A hole in a distant wall revealed the opening he had noticed earlier, and taking into account the possible escape route, he held on to his right index finger with his thumb and aimed at a hole in an opposite wall to the opening. Three robots lined up perfectly there for this gambit to work, as the raw energy of One for All coursed through the arm and into the hand. _Picture the egg in the microwave!_ The energy was packed into the index finger, and subsequently released as he released said finger: "Delaware… SMASH!"

The robots barely managed to notice Izuku before a massive shockwave blasted through the area. In an instant, the bots closest to Midoriya's target folded as if they were made of paper and then were sent flying into the walls and corners of the area, demolishing the walls around several of the other villains and bringing the rooms crashing around them. With adrenaline flowing through his body, Izuku sprinted as fast as his body would let him towards the hole through which the bots entered as soon as he recovered from the recoil of the blast, managing to leap through the opening while the large room he was in began to fall apart. Now outside the building, Izuku still ran away some distance from the chaos, just to make sure the debris crashing down behind him didn't hit him. Once the noise settled down, Izuku finally stopped running and put his hands on his knees, breathing heavily as he recovered. He turned around to see the building at his back, and while it could have gone better, he concluded that from the time he made to get to the now demolished section, the destruction didn't spread wide enough to risk the storage room.

"Midoriya! Can you hear me? Are you ok?"

"Y-yeah, I'm ok Jirou. S-sorry for the noise there." Izuku was expecting his teammate to lash out at him considering that she was probably still hearing through the ground as the side of the building crumbled behind him. While her voice was definitely tense, it seemed to convey concern rather than anger, since for all she knew he might as well be stuck in the debris or worse, and her quirk wouldn't help hear his steps since they would be drowned out in the destruction nearby. Izuku heard a frustrated sigh before Kyouka continued talking.

"Well, I don't pick up any more sounds coming from there, so good job with that." Izuku let out a sigh of relief. He didn't expect the chain reaction to take out the entire wave in one shot, instead counting on Kyouka eliminating the stragglers that remained. "However, another wave is coming from the opposite side, and it includes some heavier machinery." And just like that, Midoriya tensed up again. That was closer to the storage where he had located the civilians, and an even more difficult wave was approaching it. Jirou had already proved herself capable of handling a wave of easy villain robots, but this one included tougher robots, and Izuku was unsure whether a stab from the earphone jacks would be enough to deactivate them. Making things worse, he would have to run around the debris and the sides of the building in order to reach the new wave, and that would take him two or three minutes at least.

"I'll be right there! Try to keep them outside the building while I get there." Izuku wished he had a better plan than to hope for the best, but unless whatever team had been assigned to their rescue arrived soon, this was their best and only option. He needed the villains outside the building, as he couldn't afford to demolish the area near the storage. It would risk the civilians and even if they somehow were still standing, the debris would make it much harder to extract them from the training grounds once it was time to do so. A sharp silence lingered as Izuku started running around the building for a moment before being cut short by a single laugh from Kyouka.

"You know, I'll give you this one since I haven't got any better ideas."

Without delay, Izuku ran even faster than before. He was halfway through the backside of the building, the only one that hadn't been attacked yet, when a loud noise once again rang through his earpiece; the electric boom that sounded shortly before the second wave arrived was now being broadcasted to him, and it just kept on getting louder and more erratic. He could barely hear his own breathing as his right ear began to ring louder and louder. _Is that… the noise of Kyouka's amplifiers? That's what is keeping the robots at bay?_ At times the noise would fade away before going silent for a few seconds, just to start all over again, louder than before. Midoriya struggled to keep on going as the dreary note overwhelmed his senses, and yet he didn't stop running for a moment as the noise got progressively worse with only a few short breaks, wondering if his ear would go deaf from the pain.

Before Izuku knew it, he had reached a corner. He hadn't been aware of how fast he was running, trying to outrun a threat that would keep on outrunning him no matter how fast he went. He made a sharp turn, barely keeping himself from losing balance, and saw the scene in front of him: a multitude of robots steadily advanced, pushing aside the wreckage of other villains that were unable to withstand the increasing force of Kyouka's sound wave. Speaking of which, she stood only a few meters now away from the advancing wave, her teeth gritted and eyes forced unto the oncoming wave. A small line of red could be seen on her ear, though it appeared to have dried a while ago. _She's overexerting her quirk… at this rate she's going to end up hurting herself!_

Once again, energy coursed through the user of One for All, this time more chaotically than before. He was able to focus it down to his left arm, then his hand, and finally his index, middle and ring fingers. Before unleashing his energy, he let out a scream that he barely managed to hear himself:

 **"Jirou! Get inside the building!"**

On cue, the sound wave stopped and Jirou dashed into the building, her jacks dropping to her sides as she covered her tinted ear. Izuku thanked that she could hear better than most others, as he doubted anyone else would be able to hear his voice over Kyouka's attack. He was able to get close to one of the Medium Villains, which reminded him of scorpions unlike to the wheeled Easy Villains, and formed a fist with his left hand, before unleashing the energy of One for All into a direct punch.

 **"Texas SMASH!"**

The robot was immediately launched through the air and into another one, away from the building. Pieces of it flew through the air hitting several of the remaining robots and incapacitating them, and the few that remained were dented and rendered immobile by the shockwaves sent by the force of the attack. Izuku made sure to aim it so that the building suffered the least amount of damage possible, and besides all of the shattered windows, the structure proper showed no new damage. Izuku was finally able to take a moment to catch his breath, let the rush cool down and think about how he would explain the broken fingers to Recovery Girl.

Or he would have, but he had to make sure of something beforehand.

He ran inside the building and noticed Kyouka sitting down against a wall; her hand covering the ear that he earlier noticed had a distinct dark red falling from it. Izuku was unable to express his concern since Kyouka had an idea of what he was going to say and answered accordingly.

"First wave, one of those struck me clean in the ear." She then raised her jacks to her head. "I can still hear with them, so let's get back to business." She then stabbed the ground with them and focused on listening for any signs of incoming danger. While Izuku was confident that the dummies had not suffered any damage so far, it never hurt to check on them in case the shockwaves, debris or any stray villain had managed to damage them or otherwise inconvenience the upcoming extraction. As he made his way back to the storage room, he heard a new voice in his earpiece.

"Rescue Team D to Defense team C, we are approaching the crisis point. Can you hear me?" The voice spoke in a firm tone and voice that Izuku immediately recognized.

"I-Iida? Yeah, I can hear you!" Izuku wasn't sure of the communication range of the headsets, but Tenya couldn't be too far off if just now they were able to hear each other. The pair just needed to hold on a bit longer, and Kyouka had not alerted them to any further waves just yet.

"Finally! _Ahem,_ Team D will arrive within the minute to assist you in the extraction of the civilians, so please continue protecting the innocent lives from the criminals while we arrive." Sometimes Izuku wondered how Iida could sound so serious while using an exaggerated vocabulary as such, and he didn't seem to be alone in thinking this as Kyouka's voice made it known soon after.

"Somehow I doubt that's how actual heroes speak, even the more flowery ones." Not a moment later, yet another new voice forced itself onto the conversation.

"Hehe, he's been like that the whole exercise, don't mind it. You two doin' okay?" The female voice was much harder to recognize, as it was almost as unknown to Izuku as Kyouka's was just an hour ago, but he did recognize it as a hyperactive, cheery voice that could often be heard from the other side of the classroom… yet he couldn't quite put a name to it.

"Y-yeah, the civilians are still untouched so far."

"Alright! It won't take long before Iida and I get there, so hang on for a sec."

"You might want to take less than that." Kyouka interrupted before one final crash of steel against pavement echoed throughout the building and by extension the earpieces of the four teenagers. "Another wave of robots is coming from the backside area of the building, and they brought the heavy ones this time." The Hard Villains were quadruped juggernauts larger than the Medium or Easy villains, only dwarfed by the gargantuan Arena Traps. Izuku was confident in his chances against one of them, after all he was able to demolish one of the latter, but a large pack of them, or even a few amongst a unit of mediums and easies would spell trouble for the both of them, considering that Kyouka had just used her quirk on a massive scale for an extended period of time and Izuku was down 4 out of 10 fingers. Right now, the priority was to stall and await the rescue.

"Jirou, we need to move the civilians away from the wave! Iida and…"

"Mina Ashido at your service!"

"…Ashido, right. S-sorry. Iida and Ashido, move towards the front—"

"Crap."

"K-Kyouka? What happened?"

"Waves of bots are closing in from all fronts! Mostly the smaller ones, but we'll still need to cut a path."

After a small delay, the sound of machines closing in filled the air. They were completely surrounded, and no side was perfectly safe. The back was out of the question: they would need to fight through the strongest wave sent yet. The left side was impassable due to the debris, and the right side was closest to the strongest wave of them all. Going up or down was impossible: neither team was capable of leaping through the air for extended periods of time, not to mention that the roof may crumble under the combined assault of the villain rush on the ground, and none of their quirks was adequate to form a large enough underground exit on such short notice. In the end, there was only one way they could have a chance at escaping safely.

"We'll still need to move the civilians closer to the front. How long will it take you to get here?"

"I'd say about 20 seconds, Midoriya."

"Okay. J-Jirou, same plan as before."

"We'll cut a way through the villains and building. We detected the horde and while its numbers are impressive, they are quite spread out and favor quantity over quality." By the time Iida finished briefing the rescue team plan, Kyouka arrived at Izuku's position and immediately grabbed two of the dummies surrounding them beneath one arm each, and headed towards the front entrance.

"Thanks for the mission control, but we should get going now."

"R-right, sorry." Izuku took the last two dummies under his arms similarly to Kyouka and headed towards the exit as well. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he stayed alert for any threat, and the sound of machines approaching them just seemed to increase at every moment while the earpiece transmitted the sounds of steel meeting steel accompanied by frequent sizzling as acid burned through the metal. Kyouka led the way, using her earphone jacks at any fork in the road to avoid encountering any villains while heading for the exit. Her jacks took out the few robots that appeared on the way, Izuku noticing on how quickly they stabbed through metal without any problem, as well as their dexterity and the surprisingly large area they could cover. It seemed so simple compared to most other quirks in 1-A, and yet extremely effective and versatile in its applications.

Before he knew it, they were in front of a large series of doors. Only one more obstacle to go through, and they would hopefully pass the assignment. Iida and Ashido were also there, looking almost as exhausted as the defenders did. Their path could not have been easy for them either, it seemed. Izuku confirmed that the acid user was indeed the girl with black sclera and pink skin, who forced a smile out despite the slumped shoulders, bent knees and the sweat rolling down her skin, while Iida's breathing could be heard from behind his helmet and a few pieces of his armor were dented.

"We were able to make our way here safely, but the path we cleared previously is quickly fading. Can you hold on to the civilians for a moment longer?"

"Y-yeah, I'm sure of it." While it was true that his hands were in pain due to the broken fingers dangling from them, his arms proper could still hold on to the dummies for a few more minutes. Kyouka held on to her ones she carried as well.

"I'll lead the charge and take care of the bots in front of us. Mina should go at the back and make a "path" of acid so that the bots will either melt or slow down if they try to chase us."

"Got it!"

"I'll handle whatever approaches the sides then. Sounds like a plan to me."

With a silent nod, the team charged towards the outside of the building. Iida led them towards an area that he and Ashido were able to thin out but not quite clear, steadily advancing through the army of easy villain bots. Iida's quirk, Engine, not only allowed for swift movement through the ground, but also added a large amount of strength to his kicks, allowing him to easily clear a path to advance. Kyouka continued to stab the robots swiftly as she had done throughout the rest of the assignment, and behind Izuku, Ashido effortlessly stopped any of them coming from behind, either dissolving critical parts of the robots or paralyzing them by aiming at the ground below them, making them unable to move as soon as they passed through the acid. A sound plan to reach the safe zone just a couple of meters ahead now, but slow enough that Izuku's grips began to slide. If the civilians slipped from him, they would slow down even more, giving the robots the chance to surround them, not to mention that the dummies could be damaged and count as a loss. _Damn it, at this rate_ … _just a bit more!_

He unconsciously undid the grip on his hands, and his arms would have faltered as well at the last moment, just a couple meters away from the goal, hadn't he felt the weight of the dummies decrease minimally in an instant. A few more steps he took before putting the civilians down gently, and a loud horn indicated the end of the exercise.

 **"Defense team C and Rescue Team D: Four out of four civilians rescued! Mission Status: Success!"**

Izuku knelt on the ground desperately catching his breath. The exercise had taken a lot out of him, and his body finally had a moment to catch up to the adrenaline rush he had on throughout the last fifteen minutes or so. Taking a moment to look around him, his teammates didn't seem much better, as all of them breathed heavily, desperately recovering from the nonstop tension. The only words he heard from any of the three students nearby before Aizawa would give them their grade were of a previously unknown voice that within the span of a physical assignment, became familiar to the green haired teenager.

"That… could've gone worse."

* * *

What little was left of the school day passed as Izuku would expect. While they were able to successfully to rescue all 4 civilian targets, he lost several points due to risking the structure of the building where civilians and heroes alike could be trapped in. He still passed as well as the rest of his team did, but not without a lecture about collateral damage for future exercises and a short visit to Recovery Girl to heal and bandage his broken fingers. One period later, and the students were dismissed for the day. Izuku thought back to the incident at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint a week ago, specifically when he was able to summon the use of his quirk without damaging himself at all. He still had been unable to summon similar results, and not from a lack of trying to either focus the energy of One for All even further or trying to stop the flow of energy just before the attack struck when training on his own, and with the announcement of the Sports Festival shortly after the incident, there was even more pressure on Midoriya to find a way to control his quirk in the two weeks they had to prepare.

Still lost in thought, Izuku stood up from his desk and began to walk out of the classroom before being interrupted by a low voice behind him.

"Hey Midoriya." Izuku leapt a bit before quickly turning to see his teammate from the physical assignment standing a few feet from him. With Uraraka and Iida having left a minute ago, Izuku was not expecting to talk to anybody else throughout the whole way back until he made his way home and thus the greeting took him off guard. Not helping was the fact that he still got nervous whenever he talked to people he did not know very well, and after the joint assignment he still didn't know much about her since besides some of her quips, she mostly stayed aloof throughout the whole thing except for her occasional smirk. She didn't give him anytime to greet her back before she messed with him a bit more. "Got your head in the clouds again?"

"S-sorry, I-I didn'tnoticeyouthere I didn'tmeanto—"

" Okay, I'm gonna need you to slow down a bit." Kyouka stared blankly at Izuku for a few as he stopped his gibberish before his classmate continued. "You know, I was worried that you would walk away from that mess earlier with one of your arms dangling by the side. I guess a couple of broken fingers is a step up from that." For a moment, Izuku caught a glimpse of Kyouka smiling at him. Not a smirk, he had already seen a few of them not long ago, this expression was softer and relaxed without a hint of teasing intent. His mind engraved the expression into his memory just before Kyouka's face returned to her usual frown.

"Oh! I- I… uh… th _a_ nks?" Izuku's cheeks were tinted pink when he realized his voice cracked after he forced out the only response he could think of for the… compliment? Congratulations? Not even that made sense in his head right now.

"Real smooth. By the way, you did well back there. Not sure if you had to bring down a part of the building while you were at it, but we passed, and I've gotta say, for such a wimpy guy, your quirk is quite impressive." Her expression didn't change once during her simultaneous praise and shade thrown at her classmate. "Anyways, I'm still wondering why were you so tense before the exercise started. You made it through the entrance exam, didn't you? What was the deal with-"

 _Vzzzzzzt_.

Kyouka stopped for a second before swiftly flipping out her phone and looked at the screen for a second before putting it back. "I guess I'll leave that for tomorrow. See ya." Without giving Izuku a chance to reply, Kyouka walked out of the classroom, leaving the green haired boy to wonder what had just happened. The only thing clear in his mind was the contrast between the sarcastic, aloof teenager and the still engraved smile she had given him. He hadn't spared a thought to her previously, barely knowing she existed, and now for better or worse she stuck to his mind like glue, if only so that he could try to comprehend what was the deal with her.

* * *

He didn't have an answer ready by the time he got home, not a conclusive one at least. Kyouka liked messing with him, that much was clear, but in contrast to her aloof nature, she seemed able to coordinate and cooperate with others just fine back in the physical assignment. She was also quick to make her opinion known, though both positive and negative ones had a quip or slumped tone as an attachment. And the more he thought about her quirk, the more impressive it seemed. A pair of long, dexterous, cable-like cartilage strings that ended in earphone jacks strong enough to pierce, concrete, rocks, and dent lesser metals without a problem, and aside from that it also heightened the user's hearing through solid objects, allowing its user to serve the function of a sonar. As if all that wasn't enough, when connected to an amplifier, the quirk unleashes a wave of sound capable of disabling targets on a large area.

Izuku gave a look at the new hero entry he had written. Ever since coming to U.A, he had started to take notes on the classmates he worked with in addition to the unending list of pro heroes. A few pages were dedicated to Uraraka's ability to inflict zero gravity upon whatever she touches, followed by some observations on Iida's Engine quirk, now updated by watching how he cleared a path through the last wave of bots they encountered. Accompanying each entry was a sketch on the hero represented in it, with observations on how their costume worked in tandem with their quirk. Izuku found himself raising his pen away from the paper, staring at the sketch he had just finished.

Kyouka's hero costume consisted of a jet black jacket that only reached down to the sides of her stomach, equally dark pants, a peach-colored shirt underneath the jacket that reached all the way to her thighs, and black boots with speakers to use her quirk on, which Izuku noticed was surprisingly casual, more befitting for a local rock concert than rescuing people, which made it stand out from the more elaborate and flashy designs in class 1-A. But there was still one more detail to fill in. While it was true that what he was thinking of would not be accurate to the usual appearance of the Earphone Jack user… he preferred to remember her this way, despite the strange school day she had given him.

He ended up drawing a smile on the sketch.

* * *

 **Wow, it's been a while, huh?**

 **This is something I'll be writing for fun from now on. I thought up of this ship for laughs about a week ago and now here I am, coming back after a thousand years of laying dormant (and not really writing anything during that period). Real life sometimes seems to try its best to suck out all will to write you know.**

 **Anyways, I hope you liked this introductory chapter. I'm trying to get the hang of writing back after being so out of practice but I had fun writing this and I have plans to move this story forward in the next few months at least. Reviews and comments are welcome, especially constructive criticisms. It means a lot to me that people are willing to say what they like and do not like when I'm working on something. Another ride starts from here on!**

 **-InazumaFrost**

 **PS. This story was inspired by QuirkQuartz amazing "Awkward Energy – MinaDeku", and if anyone reading this hasn't checked it out, I urge you to do so, even if you don't like the pairing it still has some incredible effort and writing put into it. If you liked this even a bit, then I cannot recommend AE enough.**

 **EDIT: While I already mentioned it on my profile, I guess that it is more likely for my readers to know this if I announce it in the chapters proper: The fic has a cover image now! Drawn by nocunoct from Tumblr and Pixiv, an amazing artist overall. I cannot thank him enough for the ship art he made, and you can send him some love over here:**

 **Pixiv: https /www pixiv net / member php ? id=18266374**

 **Tumblr: http /nocunoct tumblr com/**


	2. High Tension

High Tension

"Are you alright, Deku? You've been looking a bit more nervous than usual today." Today's classes had just ended a few seconds ago, in what Izuku had felt to be one of the longest school days he had been through. Uraraka wasn't wrong in her worry; this day had been tense for the green haired boy. Between the ever-nearing pressure to excel at the Sports Festival, an increasing necessity to control One for All before the event, and yesterday's unexpected events, Izuku was unable to hide his tension for long.

"Oh, don't worry about it! J-Just a bit tense due to the Sports Festival, that's all." Izuku said jumping a bit from his seat as he did so. He knew that every student in UA was going through the same pressure, to excel and present themselves to the world of heroes, as well as getting the opportunity to intern with all varieties of heroes in different fields. It was a heavy weight for the students to carry so early on, but also a massive opportunity for all involved, for different reasons.

"Oh yeah, I guess that's inevitable. Still, we've gotta give it our all in the festival, so don't let it get to you, alright?"

"S-sure, thanks Uraraka." As Izuku said that, Uraraka flashed a smile at him and then turned around to leave the 1-A classroom. As she arrived at the door, she turned back and waved at him before leaving.

"I'll see you at the Sports Festival! Do your best!"

With that, Izuku was left to think once more about yesterday's events that had created a sinking feeling throughout the day. That was a strange day for the green haired boy, all things considered, but there were two details about it that were still stuck to his mind after the fact.

The first was the brief smile Kyouka had given him when they "talked" after classes ended. Izuku somehow still had his doubts on whether it happened at all considering that it just seemed to appear for a second before returning to Jirou's usual frown, but the memory of it was as clear in his mind as a snapshot. Izuku still did not know what to make of it, but for what it was worth… it was a pretty smile.

The other detail was not quite as pleasant to think about.

" _I guess I'll leave that for tomorrow."_

Kyouka's words from before rang on Izuku's mind every other hour during the school day, a reminder that a girl that he barely knew and was surprisingly intimidating could jump at him at any moment. He knew very well what she meant by "that". In retrospect, Izuku could see why Kyouka would be confused about his trancelike state before the exercise began. If her jacks were strong enough to disable the robots as easily as one would stab a pencil through a sheet of paper, then from what little she could have seen of his quirk, either on Aizawa's initial quirk test or on the villain invasion, it made sense that she would think that Izuku could breeze through the entrance exam, even if it cost him a finger or two

This of course, implied that Izuku knew how resistant the bots were, or that he had any idea on how to use One for All other than a vague explanation by his mentor, All Might.

Besides, Izuku wasn't too worried about being unable to handle the incoming waves. He was instead dreading the possibility of having to break his arm again in order to complete the assignment, and the chance that one wrong move could mean that a large part of the building could collapse all around them didn't exactly calm his nerves. He was lucky that his first use of One for All in the assignment didn't bring the whole structure down, burying the civilians under the rubble and possibly injuring himself or Jirou, something that Aizawa made very clear after giving him his barely-passing grade on the assignment.

If Izuku had to be honest though, his main source of tension yesterday before the exercise was the very same person who asked him about that. He considered the fact that he was able to talk to and befriend Uraraka in such a short amount of time nothing short of a miracle, a stroke of luck brought about by the right circumstances happening at the exact time, and even then he still felt his stomach twirl a little whenever she spoke to him. Despite being largely more silent and aloof, it was just as hard for Izuku to keep his nerves in check around Kyouka thanks to her cold gaze and a lack of knowledge of how well they could work together, or how he virtually knew nothing about his assigned teammate.

A few hours after the exercise, all he had clear was the surprising versatility and potency of her quirk, how cooperative she was when given an effective strategy, and the knowledge that she might just like to throw quips at his expense. None of this newfound knowledge made it easier when just a few moments after Izuku stood up from his seat, from behind he heard the greeting that a part of him dreaded throughout the whole day.

"Hey, Midoriya."

On cue, he turned around in an instant to confirm that, indeed, Kyouka had just approached him without noticing. She stood there as calm and aloof as a person could be, her usual frown present and with a bored yet focused stare directed up towards him. For someone who had to look up to him in other to lock her gaze with his, she still managed to be quite intimidating for Izuku. Still, even if Izuku was as nervous as he could be up to this point, he at least now knew what was coming. At least this time, he could say he was somewhat prepared.

This time, it was much easier for Izuku to match her greeting, if nothing else.

"Oh, H-hey, Jirou." Granted, his cheeks were still slightly red tinted, but at least this time his smile seemed more genuine instead of forced and he didn't end up frantically throwing words at the girl. He was frantically waving his arms though.

"Well, that went better than I expected it to go. Anyways, I guess you already know what I'm going to ask you." Izuku only nodded silently.

He had considered telling her that he was just nervous about the assignment itself, but considering his quirk and performance at the Battle Trial, she could have probably already considered and discounted that possibility. Trying to imply that he wasn't sure he could defeat the robots would be outright silly, considering that he very well knew how strong One for All was, and since very few people knew his quirk was only recently passed down, he couldn't say that he didn't know how to use it back then.

Izuku knew very well that the only viable option was to tell her the truth. At least he could explain that.

"R-right. I… wasn't worried about not being able to handle the bots. I would probably break a few fingers doing so, but nothing too major. And y-yeah, I did pass the entrance exam… albeit more due to rescue points than villain." Izuku had to take a deep breath after that. He was probably going to regret what he was about to say, but there really wasn't any way around it.

"I-I uh… I wasn't expecting a… joint assignment that day… less so that the… pairs would be random. And… well, when we got to the building we had to protect, I realized… that you could be a bit… intimidating. Th-that's it, sorry."

By this point, any composure that Izuku could've had was completely gone. He was sweating, stuttering over his words, his face was more visibly red and he could feel his body shaking a bit. He only realized how stupid that sounded. After fighting Bakugou, surviving an attack by the League of Villains, and with the risk of injuring his body while driving off waves of robots, he was intimidated by, of all things, a fellow female student. He just stood there trying to calm himself in silence for a moment, unable to meet Jirou's gaze, before she spoke up.

"Intimidating, huh? That's really flattering, you know?" After hearing this, Izuku turned back to face Jirou, who still maintained her flat look despite his own increasing lack of composure. The only way he could excuse the subsequent event was that he was unsure whether that was one of her usual quips or somehow, a genuinely sincere statement. Her expression did not favor either one or the other, nor did the crossed, yet relaxed arms below her chest. Whatever it was, Izuku couldn't help but break at that moment.

"Jirou I'msorryIswearIdidn'tmeanto – I-Idon't thinkyou'rebad at all Iswearyou'vegotareallycoolquirkand a p-prettysmilebut Ididn'texpect—"

"For fuck's sake, shut up Deku. Trying to flirt with an extra doesn't mean you'll stop being a goddamn failure!" On cue, Izuku stopped his hasty apology before turning to his side and noticing Bakugou walking past him, with the remains of an annoyed scowl still visible on what Izuku could catch on his face. While a part of him silently thanked the forceful interruption of his loud muttering, his face turned even redder and froze when he realized what his childhood friend-turned-bully had just said. Izuku didn't filter his vocal vomit, and he said it in such a rapid-fire way that when he suddenly stopped, he found himself not quite sure of what he had just said to the Earphone Jack user.

 _F-flirt? What!? Did I say something wrong? What did I say? Wait, how is Jirou-_

"Big talk from the guy who lost to that same failure, don't you think? Talk about being a delusional loser." Barely believing what he just heard, Izuku turned back towards Jirou. She was staring right back at Bakugou with something that looked like a tranquil fury in her eyes, but an otherwise unchanged expression. The silence didn't last long though.

"Stay out of this, cable ears! Deku just got fucking lucky that time, and even then he still ended up facing the dirt like he deserves to." Bakugou wasn't just annoyed this time, he was outright furious. Between being reminded of his failure to beat Izuku at the Battle Trial, and some idiot actually trying to defend the kid, his expression became outright threatening as he stopped to stare at both of them. Izuku was still trying to figure out what was going on, while Jirou did not avert her gaze from the explosion quirk user.

"I don't know, you seemed pretty convinced of your defeat back then. How about you stop being so obsessed with the guy and mind your own business?" She didn't back down either. Bakugou looked like he was going to shout back at Jirou again, before scoffing and turning away with his same scowling face throughout it all, leaving a warning before her stormed off.

"Fuck off. I'll make you eat your words at the Sports Festival, you piece of shit."

Izuku didn't know what surprised him the most: That someone had stood up to Bakugou for him, or that said person barely knew him just one day ago. He once more stood silently for a minute as Bakugou disappeared from his sight, still processing what just happened. These days, if anything, had really started to mess with his head quite a bit.

"So, you had to deal with that idiot throughout middle school yet somehow I'm intimidating?" Izuku was forced out of his confusion by Kyouka's voice snarking at him, a swift reminder of how she seemed to enjoy putting the green haired boy on the spot whenever possible. She did have a point though, if a bit fickle. Jirou then started walking out of the class as well, catching Izuku by surprise before he did a small sprint to catch up, not sure if he really had to answer to that, but he didn't want to miss the chance to better explain himself either.

"Y-yeah, sorry about that. I didn't know much… w-well, anything about you before the assignment, and, uh, I… I wasn't too comfortable with your stare back there. I wasn't sure if it was going to work, th-that's why I was so tense before the simulation started." That was probably a better explanation than just saying Jirou intimidated him, and while she still made Izuku nervous by just being around her… it wasn't quite as bad as before now after what just happened. Jirou answered with a nod, her face back to her frigid frown.

"It's fine, really. Just a bit strange since you didn't seem that tense even before facing Bakugou at the first battle class." In that moment, Izuku was reminded of what had just happened a couple minutes ago. Jirou had just told off his bully since childhood when he tried to intimidate Izuku as he always did, and for no apparent reason, even if he had already proven that he could stand up to Bakugou. Granted, they were able to work together on yesterday's assignment, and Izuku at least hoped she didn't outright dislike him, but it was still quite the shock for the formerly quirkless boy. A dozen reasons, not all of them pleasant, ran through his head while they headed out of the UA building, explanations that ranged from pity to altruism or just frustration with the loud student. This question wouldn't stay just in his head, however.

"U-Umm, Jirou... why? I-I mean, I appreciate it but… why did you tell him off like that?" It was a stupid question when Izuku thought about it. A part of him felt that he should instead be thanking her for actually doing something almost nobody had ever done for him, standing up to his tormentor for over a decade as casually as saying a greeting, and to say that he appreciated it was an understatement. He wasn't going to forget that any time soon… but still, he needed a reason, even if it ended up hurting him. His curiosity wouldn't let this pass by.

In a moment, Jirou halted her pace in front of the school gates and turned to stare directly at Izuku. Her face expressed a bit of frustration, which was not a good sign for the nervous student. In retrospect, he really didn't need to worry.

"I don't like seeing a supposed hero in training torment someone who is actually trying really hard to become a hero, less so if that person happens to be a friend of mine."

Izuku really wasn't expecting that. At best, he expected her to say that she didn't like bullies, and that would have been fine as far as he was concerned, since many of the other options were not comforting. Being called a friend though, that was not even a passing thought for the shocked boy. While he did consider Uraraka and Iida friends after less than going through a joint exercise, the former was virtually the complete opposite of Jirou when it came down to cheerfulness, expression and overall personality, being much more outwardly and emotional than the aloof rocker, while Iida, despite being cold towards Izuku initially as well, had a more direct reason to befriend Izuku after being granted the position of class president. All that Izuku and Kyouka shared was the team assignment last day, which would probably just stayed at that if she wasn't interested in knowing what was making Izuku a nervous wreck before the assignment.

That being said... it was unexpected, but not senseless. They were able to work together well in the assignment, and there was no real indication that any of the two outright disliked the other. Izuku had heard and seen how Jirou managed to clear one wave of robots by herself, hold off a much larger one for a while, and despite barely knowing him, she was still able to work and communicate well enough with him. He wouldn't mind having to work together with her again, all things considered. Most of all, he was happy he could consider her a friend as well.

That didn't mean that she still made him any less nervous than ever.

"W-w-what? A-a friend?!" He wasn't paralyzed in shock this time, but his cheeks still felt like they were burning for a while, and he couldn't help but scratch the back of his head. Jirou turned to a side and covered her mouth, trying and failing to contain a laugh at Izuku's expense, before responding with a small quip accompanied by a smirk.

"You know, I had forgotten just how intimidating I was. I can take that back if you want." Izuku noticed her voice changing into her snarky tone again, but even if she were serious it wouldn't hurt to shoot down that last possibility. Even if it didn't amount to much, getting to befriend and know each other would help both once they became heroes and needed to work together for any given reason. It never hurt to had someone else to rely on out in the field, or even during their student years for that matter.

"T-that—That's not what I meant! Seriously, I- I am really thankful that you con-consider me a friend a-and I-I'd be ok with doing so too. Considering you a friend I mean." Izuku involuntarily formed a smile as he said it. He wasn't alone in doing so though. A confirmation that what he had seen yesterday was not just the product of a brain overloaded with shyness, Jirou smiled back at him for a longer moment. As he remembered it, it was quite a contrast with her usual self as far as he knew, and it just made it even prettier than he thought it was before. This time, a smirk replaced said smile, alerting the green haired boy as he struggled to fight back the blush that he found himself in.

"I thought so." She then went back to her usual frown as she begun to walk out the school gates with Izuku following her, hoping that she was headed to the same train station he needed to take to get back home. Said frown seemed softer now that Izuku saw it again. "You weren't kidding when you said my smile was pretty, huh? You've got "flustered nerd" written all over your face."

 _Wait what?! When did I say that?! Was that what Bakugou meant by flirting? Oh gosh, just what was I saying back then?_

While Izuku's thoughts were relatively clear, the same could not be said for the intelligible blabbering and mild screaming coming from Izuku's mouth. As if that wasn't enough, he was now sweating, trying to hide his full-face blush with his arms and turning away from Jirou as they walked, gaining more than a few stares from the other pedestrians nearby. When he finally was able to answer something coherent, he turned back towards Jirou who had a smirk on her once more. Izuku just gave a resigned laugh in apparent defeat before finally calming down.

 _She really enjoys doing this to me, doesn't she?_

"What else did I say?"

"Oh, you want the full list? Well, here it goes." The Earphone Jack girl then raised her voice an octave and in a tone that Izuku swore was scarily accurate to how he thought he talked, yet still clearly mocking, and a bit more slowly and clearly, Jirou said:

"Jirou I'm sorry I swear I didn't mean to… I don't think you're bad at all I swear; you've got a really cool quirk and a pretty smile but I didn't expect-" after that stop, Jirou returned to her normal voice, adding "And that's when the explosion moron barged in."

Izuku had to stop himself from letting out a laugh at the whole thing, but that aside he was still fairly impressed that she was able to so clearly hear and interpret what he muttered or spluttered out. Then again, for all he knew she could just have been making that up… but that was what Izuku really thought of her. He didn't mean to hurt her by saying she was intimidating, he didn't think she was a bad person by any stretch; he did think she had an amazingly versatile quirk, and of course, her smile was pretty.

As far as he was concerned, he did say all of those things without thinking it.

"H-how did you get all that?"

"That really cool quirk you mentioned? I can amplify my hearing with it even outside of hearing through walls and ground. By comparison, your vocal vomit might as well be an acceptance speech." Izuku focused on these words as he made sure to add a note about heightened hearing at will outside of solid objects to her entry in the quirk notebook.

 _Heightened Hearing: The jacks apparently allows the user to activate this capability at will, allowing them to understand and hear clearly what the normal ear would be unable to keep up with or perceive._

"I'm actually kinda surprised that you would think so highly of it. Your quirk is second to none I've seen in terms of raw power, except for whatever All Might's is, and you seem to be getting better at controlling how many of your bones it puts through the blender." Izuku looked at Kyouka once she said that. He knew that he had a long way until he could properly use One for All as well as All Might did, or even use it without hurting himself, but he then noticed how, instead of having an entire arm bandaged and casted, he only had a few bandages in a few of his fingers. He was making progress, albeit slow and painful, which Jirou had to remind him in her own way.

He still had to explain why he thought her quirk was actually impressive as well, moreso after she talked it down in comparison.

"Well, it isn't particularly powerful by itself, but it is still strong enough to stab through lesser metals while being incredibly flexible and covering such a wide area around you. Not only that, but with the proper equipment it can do that… sound boom that is strong enough to hold off a wave of large bots and damage or deactivate the lesser ones! And even with all that, it still has the capability to hear through walls and the ground, effectively giving you the capabilities of a passive sonar. I don't think I've seen a quirk as inherently versatile as it, capable of fighting, gathering info, and rescuing without a problem! It really is a cool quirk, Jirou!"

As he finished gushing about the Earphone Jack quirk, he noticed that her expression was quite different to anything she had shown before. Her mouth was barely open, her eyes widened in apparent surprise, which seemed to indicate that for once, Jirou was the one surprised by what he had just said. It didn't last long though before Jirou gave a small smile, not quite the one Izuku had engraved in his mind, but not a smirk either.

"Okay, that's actually flattering. If you say so nerd, I just hope it is enough to make it through the Sports Festival." Just four days, and they would have to showcase their quirks and capabilities for the world to see, for pro heroes to analyze and chose, for them to make their stand. To say, "I am here!" And Izuku could not yet figure out a way to replicate the time that he was able to control One for All enough to not hurt himself and use it again. Things weren't looking well for All Might's successor, so say the least.

"Well, I'm the one who decided to become a hero, crippling pressure to succeed and all, so I guess I can handle it." Izuku just let out a small laugh at her statement, remembering that as bad as he had it being the successor of the world's greatest hero, others were not exempt of a similar weight for their futures.

"Y-yeah, it's gonna be tough."

A few more minutes passed as they walked through the streets of Musutafu, more silent than the previous ones. After a small while of following Jirou, they finally arrived at the station that Izuku knew as the one he took to go home. The two of them stopped amongst the crowd of people walking in and out of the station to look at the current departures and arrivals. Izuku gave out a sigh of relief as he saw that his train was due in ten minutes. Jirou just gave the list a look and without a word, she quickly pulled out her phone and started tapping into the screen, apparently texting in a frantic motion. This continued for a minute without a word being shared between the two, frozen amidst the entropic crowd, with Izuku only able to wonder what was happening and her neutral expression throughout it all not helping matters. At one point her fingers stopped tapping the screen, and brought her hand below her chin, just staring at the screen for a few long seconds, before fixing her gaze on Izuku again.

"Midoriya, mind passing me your phone number?" He wasn't sure whether it was the nature of the question, or just how sudden it ended up being that made Izuku start sweating and jump back a bit before thinking things through. It shouldn't be much different from how he already had Iida and Ochako's phones, right? It didn't calm his nerves much, but it did allow him to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone before tapping though the menu to reach his own number, giving it to Jirou. Once that was said and done and Izuku had his phone back in his pocket, Izuku had one more confusing factor added into his day, as if being screamed at by Bakugou, being questioned and then befriended by Jirou, and being asked for his phone number out of the aether wasn't enough.

"Ummm… Jirou, n-not that I have a problem with that b-but… why did you-

"Sorry, gotta get going. I'll tell you later. See ya nerd." With that, Jirou put her phone back and ran towards a gate away from where Izuku had to take his train, leaving the green haired boy confused as to what was all that about. Well, at least this time he would get his answers eventually, maybe. Hopefully.

There were a few days left till the sports festival, but they weren't going to be spent at UA. Generations may pass and society may have changed, but some customs from the time before quirks were not entirely left behind. From April 29 to May 5, the entire nation aside from heroes slowed down and was given a time to relax and take a few days off. Aside from a brief break on the 29th, UA students proper only had from May 3rd to the 5th for a small break in what was still known as "Golden Week", and at its tail end came the UA Sports Festival, the biggest competitive event of the world.

For what it was worth, Izuku didn't expect this Golden Week to be any less dull than the one from years before. But at the very least, he had managed to make a friend beforehand, and a reliable, if a bit intimidating one. As soon as he got home, he began to write down the additions to Jirou's Quirk as well as some personal notes. There was much to write that night.

 _Group chat log May 2nd, 2XXX, 19:00 PM to 22:00 PM_

 _Group member icons: earphones, molecule, lightning bolt._

19:22: Lightning Bolt: Wait, Yaoyorozu won't be going with us tomorrow?

19:25: Earphones: She has some family business to attend to that day.

19:27: Lightning Bolt: On Golden Week?

19:31: Molecule: I didn't expect that either, but a business meeting came up and my parents insisted that I should attend it with them.

19:32: Molecule: I'm truly sorry I can't accompany you tomorrow.

19:35: Earphones: Don't sweat it, not your fault.

19:37: Lightning Bolt: Ah, sorry to hear that.

19:40: Earphones: What, lost your chance to try and ask her out?

19:45: Lightning Bolt: What? I wasnt going to do that no way!

19:48: Molecule: Kaminari, I'm really sorry, but with all due respect, I'm afraid that would impossible, even if you asked.

19:52: Lightning Bolt: Damnit, both of you give me a break will ya!

19:58: Earphones: You make it really easy to mess with you. You have no one to blame but yourself.

20:03: Molecule: I'm not answering too slowly right? I'm just going over some notes from the books while we talk.

20:05: Earphones: No prob, I'm practicing a few tunes here so don't worry about it.

20:07: Lightning Bolt: Parents forcing me to study through the night again.

20:12: Molecule: So, I guess that only you two will be hanging out tomorrow then?

20:15: Earphones: Not necessarily.

20:17: Earphones: I'll ask somebody if they want to come tomorrow with Kaminari and I. Probably doesn't have anything better to do.

20:18: Lightning Bolt: Cool, who is it?

20:20: Earphones: You'll know once I know he's going.

20:22: Lightning Bolt: Ok

20:58: Lightning Bolt: Soooo.

21:00: Earphones: Slow to answer it seems. Typing now.

21:05: Earphones: Well, we've got our third attendant.

21:08: Lightning Bolt: Cool, who is it?

21:09: Earphones: Midoriya.

21:13: Molecule: Midoriya? Our classmate?

21:16: Lightning Bolt: Wait, what did I miss? He's pretty cool and all, but I've never seen you even talk with the guy.

21:19: Molecule: Ah, right. You were still short-circuited when their assignment came up, were you?

21:21: Lightning Bolt: Oh.

21:23: Molecule: They were one of the assigned pairs in yesterday's simulation exercise. Barring Izuku bringing down a sizable portion of the building, they did pretty well and were capable of covering the distinct areas of the building.

21:25: Molecule: Though I didn't expect you two to befriend each other after that.

21:28: Earphones: Something rubbed me the wrong way before the assignment, and I asked him about that.

21:32: Earphones: He's kinda endearing. Also seems reliable in a battle situation like the exercise.

21:36: Lightning Bolt: Glad he gets to join us, though he didn't strike me as the type to go hang out with the Sports Festival upcoming.

21:40: Earphones: Neither did I. It was sort of a gamble, but he said that it would be a good idea to get to know each other better in case we need to work together as heroes in the future or something like that.

21:42: Earphones: He's probably just glad that he's got something else to do other than train and study during Golden Week break.

21:45: Molecule: That seems like a respectable use of the time on the break for me.

21:48: Earphones: Not if that's all you do without having a time to have some fun.

21:51: Molecule: Fair enough.

21:53: Lightning Bolt: So, tomorrow at Noon at UA's gates?

21:55: Earphones: I haven't changed the plan, have I?

21:57: Molecule: Must go now, have fun tomorrow!

21:58: Lightning Bolt: See ya.

21:59: Earphones: Good night.

 _End of Chat Log._

 **Well, that ended up a lot differently than I originally planned. I hope you all liked this chapter, I'm still working on my pacing and I made some moves that for me at least, are a bit of risky territory. As always, I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you in the next chapter. Feel free to give any feedback and constructive criticism you may have, that's what keeps me going when writing.**

 **-InazumaFrost, Izurou shipper.**

 **AN 2: 107 Followers, almost 2500 views and about 1200 visitors one month after starting this story. I did not expect this kind of reception when I posted that first chapter about a very rare ship, even if it is an Izuku ship. Seriously, thank you guys. I might as well throw a bone and comment a bit on my plans for the fic.**

 **I can't guarantee it will get that far, but I expect it to be at least moderately long, with 15 chapters planned so far and counting. Hope you continue enjoying the fic.**

 **AN 3: And now the story has a cover courtesy of Nocunoct. Go give them some love on Pixiv or Tumblr:**

 **ww w . pixiv member . php ? id = 18266374**

 **nocunoct . t u mblr**


	3. Sparks

Chapter 3

 _Okay, let's try that again. One more time from the top._

Kyouka took a brief, deep breath before plucking at the strings of her electric guitar, letting a melody play throughout her headphone amps. Today was a silent day at home otherwise; a surprisingly common state of the Jirou household despite the shared love of music in the family. Rehearsals, composing, and scheduled meetings rarely happened within the confines of the house, making it more of a place for the parents to rest while the hero in training studied or occasionally played a tune or two from her room.

On these silent moments, if there was something Kyouka appreciated about the brief respite they were given from UA classes for the next few days, it was that it gave her a chance to relax a bit by playing only to herself while sitting on her bed. Shifting her focus from the upcoming events to strumming a few pieces on her bass or guitar often proved to be quite a calming experience for the rocker teen, which was sorely needed with the Sports Festival just a few days away. Even if the current track being played was still a work in progress, and thus it was prone to a few mistakes or odd-sounding notes. She had been working on a track for a few weeks now, but she still wasn't completely satisfied with the results of them.

After going through the composition one more time, Jirou carefully placed her guitar back into its case and checked her phone. A notification on the screen appeared, indicating that there was an unread message sent a few minutes ago from Midoriya. Without missing a beat, she tapped on it to see what it was about.

11:45, All Might: Hi Jirou. We are still meeting up today at 1 PM in front of Yuuei, right? Just thought I should ask _._

If Jirou knew anything about Izuku Midoriya before they were assigned to work together, it was that the shy teen was full of surprises. Starting with the sheer power of his quirk that contrasted with the utterly plain impression the boy gave; he then managed to get the better of Bakugou during the battle trials back at the first week of class despite the ferocity and skill of the explosive quirk user, if barely.

Getting to know him just reinforced this fact on Jirou's mind: His unexpected shift in personality when the joint exercise started had caught the Earphone Jack user off-guard for a moment. And if that wasn't enough, the green haired teen that aspired to become a hero somehow found her intimidating, which was all sorts of hilarious to her when she thought about it. Midoriya had survived an attack by villains on the USJ, endured Bakugou's temper throughout middle school, and yet her expression had him tense before the exercise even began. And as she found out, he had a way to make even text messages sound more awkward than they had any right to be.

11:46, Earphones: "I don't recall saying otherwise. Do you? _"_

 _Though I wonder how long it took for him to actually send the message._ After putting on her black leather jacket with blue sleeves on, she grabbed the three concert tickets from her study desk, the house keys her parents had given her today, a few earplugs in case the concert got too loud and walked out of her room. Her steps were the only sound in the house filled with instruments, speakers, amps, albums and all sorts of music industry memorabilia decorating the walls and floors of the place, which Jirou found funny since this was probably the house's most common state.

 _Well, the old man has a recording session to attend, mom has rehearsals and some meetings to take care of,_ Jirou thought looking at the Deep Dope concert invited guest tickets on her hand.

 _I guess it's a good thing they can't come along. Wouldn't want to attract unwanted attention as always but it sucks that they do though. They're pretty cool after all._

She put them back on her right pocket, after which she pulled out her cellphone and headphones before shifting through her music playlists. For the day ahead of her, a Deep Dope album seemed appropriate. She put on her earbuds then placed the cellphone back into her left pocket, and headed out of the house. She had just started to walk out of the house before a vibration and a brief jingle interrupted _Into the Sound Waves_. With a bit of a scowl, she grabbed the phone and saw another message notification from Midoriya.

11:50, All Might: Okay, just making sure. I'll see you there, then.

11:51, Earphones: Ok.

She placed the cellphone back into her pocket as the tune began anew and continued walking towards the station. It wasn't too far from her home, but still far enough that she had to leave relatively early. Still, she found herself giving a subtle, barely noticeable smile in anticipation of today's concert and hangout once she got to the station. The day seemed promising enough, sunny with calm winds on a temperate spring was a rare occasion for her to find some time and circumstance where she could hang out with friends, much less in a concert of one of her preferred bands. While it sucked that Momo couldn't come with, Kaminari and Midoriya promised to make the day interesting.

On the train in route proper, Jirou recalled her conversation with Midoriya last night through text. She honestly wasn't expecting him to agree to hangout with her and Kaminari, much less when she mentioned a Deep Dope concert in it. From what she learned about him in the past two days, the guy wasn't much of an outgoing person, and seemed to crumble in awkwardness whenever she approached him, something that she found slightly annoying at first. He didn't seem to recognize the name of the band, and in any case she found it more likely that he would rather study or maybe workout and train for the Sports Festival.

It was worth a shot though, as she had grown somewhat fond of the reckless boy. Jirou often had to restrain herself from laughing at Midoriya's reactions when she put him on the edge and more importantly, he seemed quite reliable back at the physical assignment and he pushed himself quite a bit at the end, carrying the dummies with mangled hands. In a way, despite how forced the reasoning seemed, Jirou found herself agreeing with Midoriya that it would be appropriate to know each other better in case they needed to work together in a given situation once they became full-fledged heroes. They could collaborate a bit already; developing that further would help them both at UA and in their future as heroes.

 _Still, I'm pretty sure the guy also wanted to just do something else other than just studying, lifting and stressing himself over the Sports Festival. Wouldn't blame him myself,_ Jirou concluded before focusing on the beats coming from her earphones and tuning out for the rest of the train ride while remembering one last thing that, if she was being honest, found genuinely flattering from the awkward UA Student, even if she had teased him a bit for that.

He found her smile to be pretty.

* * *

Jirou had to wonder just how long had Midoriya been waiting for her or Kaminari when she saw him in the distance, at the front of UA's closed gates with a frown of clear nervousness in his face. He didn't seem to notice her as he was looking to a side, and if the previous few days were any indication, he seemed to have a hard time noticing just about anyone approaching him if he was in a thought trance. He wore a black and green hoodie, dark brown jeans and ankle-high red shoes, which somehow made him appear even plainer than with his school uniform all things considered. There was not much of a reason to stay out of view, so Jirou approached the green haired teen, a part of her curious whether he would freak out at her appearance for the third time.

She was a few meters away from him when for the first time outside the exercise; Izuku saw her coming and turned to face her. He flinched in surprise for a moment, but that was about it this time before he gave a small, more natural smile than the forced mess that he tried to pass off as "normal" yesterday. There were still a few tinges of nervousness present on him, but that was to be expected from a guy who got flustered by a small smile and could barely talk to her without nearly biting his tongue at times.

"Oh! H-hi Jirou, glad to see you." Midoriya still stuttered a bit when greeting her, which after a few times could become a bit annoying, but it was an improvement over outright freaking out. Still, she would be lying if she said she wasn't glad to see her fellow student here after all; he seemed to think about her invitation for quite a while last night.

"Huh, you actually noticed me this time. That's quite surprising from you, Midoriya." Now he had a bit of a stronger reaction. His smile disappeared for a moment and his face went wide with a small tinge of a blush in there, while Jirou made sure to keep her face neutral as ever.

"W-what? It is? S-sorry about that!" Izuku said, forcing out a smile after that. _He's still a wreck at this. How surprising._ Jirou had to stop herself from giving a small laugh at the boy's predicament.

"Don't be. Didn't expect a nerd like you to agree to come to a concert." Even with the reasoning he had given. It still seemed quite strange to Jirou that the shy, focused Midoriya had accepted her invitation. She wasn't complaining about it, but it was still surprising for her.

"Oh, I kinda figured that it could be… rude to just decline if you invited me. Especially after what you did about Bakugou yesterday." _So I have Explosion Moron to thank for having Midoriya come out of his cave. Great._ "And besides, I've never been to one, so I might as well go with you two." As she expected, Midoriya wasn't one to go to concerts at all. Still, that was not all they would be doing for the day, so in the case he ended up overwhelmed or disliking it, the day hopefully wouldn't be a complete waste for him. There were still several hours until the concert started after all.

"Just don't get overwhelmed. Getting crowd anxiety before the Sports Festival doesn't seem like a good way to prepare for if you ask me." Izuku just gave a nod in response to that, his face tensing up slightly at the mention of the event, a sentiment that Jirou couldn't help but share after she had said that. They stayed in silence for a few seconds afterward, their gazes barely meeting.

 _Great, for once you're the one making things awkward, Kyouka. Good going._ The stilted moment continued for a few more seconds, during which Jirou regretted bringing up the Sports Festival just now. In a way, the hangout today was a sort of tool to unwind and tune out from said pressure by just enjoying the day, and a reminder of the big event didn't do good for Jirou's conscience at least. It seemed to bring a tinge of guilt for not being at home or at a field working out or training before what could be a turning point for her and other heroes in training, as well as dragging a few classmates into this. Regardless, this was not the time for the Earphone Jack quirk user to worry about it. There would be an entire day and a half to push herself after this, and she intended to make the most of it. For now, she had to try to break the awkward moment.

"Hey, quit that sulking. It's not like the concert is about to start just now." It was just a bit past one last time Jirou checked, and the concert started at 4:15 according to their tickets. Izuku's face widened in surprise wile showing bit of sweat around it, which despite being a bit funny also greatly confused Jirou for a moment before he replied.

"W-wait, it isn't?!"

"Uhh, yeah, pretty sure I sent you a message about that…" Jirou remembered she had told him to meet them in front of UA's gates at 1 PM after he confirmed he could go to the concert with them. Just to make sure, she brought up her cellphone and checked the texts with Midoriya.

21:02: All Might: Okay, I can go. Where do we meet up?

21:04: Earphones: Ok, that's gotta be one of the fastest replies I've ever seen. Anyways, glad to hear that, we meet at UA's gates at 1 PM. See ya there.

21:07: All Might: Sure.

Kyouka looked back at the green haired boy, who was still quite surprised about the turn of events. A long sigh summarized her feelings about the matter perfectly: she was partly to blame for the mix-up, but it reminded her how little Izuku knew about concerts, and Deep Dope specifically, that he genuinely believed that the concert would start around 1 PM.

"Or maybe not. It starts at four fifteen, still got a while to go." Izuku's face relaxed at this, even if his wide eyes and barely opened mouth still showcased questions going through his mind.

"Thanks, don't worry about it. If you don't mind me asking, what are we going to do until then?" That was probably to be expected from Midoriya now that he knew that it was a hangout. Not missing a beat, Jirou couldn't help but throw a quip at the curious teenager.

"Oh, we'll just stand here for a few hours doing nothing until the concert is about to start." Izuku's face for an instant seemed even more confused before seeming to realize that it was just Jirou's wit again and actually cracking a small smile at that. Seeing that gave Jirou some degree of satisfaction, since it seemed to be rare for her classmate to actually relax or unwind at any point from what she saw. He never seemed particularly nervous, outside of physical exercises or talking to girls at least, but he neither ever seemed particularly comfortable or calm at any point in school.

"Anyways, there are a few places to stop by in the way to the Jiwakusu Hall, so it won't be all that bad..." Jirou then looked at her surroundings for any signs of electric yellow hair, then at her phone to make sure she hadn't missed a text from a lightning bolt just to find that Kaminari had given no signs of life in the whole day.

"…Though at this rate Kaminari will actually make us stand here the whole day." It was ten minutes past one by this point, and they couldn't go anywhere before Kaminari met up with them. Jirou gave an exasperated sigh before there was another silence between the two, lasting about a minute or two. As much of a moron he could be at times, he still was a fun person to be around outside of that as well as one of her first friends she had made at UA, and a very genuine one at that compared to what Jirou had to deal with before coming to the hero high school.

Those were days that, for the most part at least, she would rather not remember at all.

After another minute of neutral silence between Jirou and Izuku, she turned to look at him and noticed him just gazing into the streets without a real hint of impatience in his eyes. _Probably lost in thought again. He didn't seem to know anything about Deep Dope now that I think about it…_

"Hey, Midoriya." Izuku was brought out of his trance by the interruption and turned to face Jirou with an irregular closed smile showing his surprise at the voice.

"Oh-What is it Jirou?"

"You do know Deep Dope right?" Izuku stared blankly towards the distance for a moment, apparently trying to see if anything came to his mind about the name. Eventually, he looked back at Jirou and shook his head before replying.

"… No, not really."

"Hmmm, makes sense coming from you I guess." At that moment, Izuku flinched a bit before blurting out in response:

"Huh? W-what's that supposed to mean?"

"That you're kind of a big nerd from what I've seen so far."

"H-hey, that was a bit uncalled for." Jirou just gave him a smirk before replying:

"Maybe."

Jirou then reached her hand into her picket and pulled out her phone. Noticing the mostly empty streets around her, she opened her Deep Dope playlist again before turning the phone's speakers to a moderately high level. She did consider just using the earphones instead, but she had them on the whole trip taking them off just a few seconds before meeting up with Izuku. _That would be gross._

"Well, here's your chance to give it a listen." Jirou pressed the play button on the phone, before taking a step closer to Midoriya and making sure he could listen the track being transmitted. Evidently he was at least interested on it, as for the three minutes that the rock song _Under the Rubble_ played, his focus was frozen on the mobile device. He didn't move an inch as the song changed tempo and potency at times, the lyrics seemingly singing about a hero who is shaken by the state of people they had rescued from disasters. It was one of Deep Dope's better ones, as far as she was concerned. The minutes passed by quickly before the music faded out and Jirou put back the cellphone in her pocket.

"So, any thoughts on it?"

"I like it, mostly how it seemed to… rise and fall? Is that how you would call that?" _Instrumentation shifts, tempo changes, change in the potency and loudness of both lyrics and the key change from the bridge to the encore chorus. But hey, rise and fall works too._ She had thought of just saying it outright to Izuku, but as far as she was concerned there was no reason for Izuku to know how to describe music that way. Besides, as long as he liked it then at least she knew that he wouldn't have a miserable time at the concert.

Not to mention that a hastily approaching teen with electric yellow hair, closed black jacket with yellow stripes on the sleeves, and dark blue jeans became visible some distance away from them. In a few seconds, the Electrification quirk user managed to stop a meter away from his classmates before greeting them.

"Hey guys, hope I didn't make you wait too much. How is it going?" He waved his hand at the two of them as he said this while giving them a casual smile all the while. He gave off the impression that out of the unlikely trio for the day he was the one most excited to be here, amidst Jirou's perpetual frown and Izuku's bouts of nervousness.

"Hi Kaminari, nice to see you here." As Jirou expected, Midoriya didn't seem to have as much trouble talking to other guys, less so when not being singled out.

"I was starting to doubt whether you'd actually come. You didn't get lost in the way here?"

"Of course not! I just had to take care of some stuff back at home, that's all."

"And you won't mention what it was. Really assuring from you." If there was something consistent about Kaminari, is that he made for an even easier target for Jirou's comments and quips than Izuku.

"Oh come on, do I really need to tell you?" _And thus the fool bit the bait._

"On a second thought, no. I probably don't need to know." Jirou said with a deeper frown that before. It took a moment of confusion for Kaminari before he seemed to realize what the rocker teen was implying, giving a long, frustrated sigh.

"Did you really have to go there?"

"What? I don't see what's wrong with those old people books you read. Well, other than being boring and full of words you just pop out for no reason."

"That was really fastidious, you know?" After covering up her laughs for a moment with her palm, Jirou turned towards Izuku who stared at them with curiosity and a tinge of worry over what had just happened.

"Hey Jirou, Kaminari. Is everything all right with you two?" It was probably the first time Izuku saw from up close how Jirou and Kaminari acted around each other some of the time, which made his concern more understandable. Still, Jirou knew or at least thought that Izuku didn't think any less of her due to her snark, and neither did she find his social awkwardness completely appalling. For a moment, Jirou wondered if she had gone a bit too far this time… before discarding that thought as Kaminari explained with a slight smile.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Don't tell me she has not thrown any shade like that at you?" _Yeah, there have been some fun moments to be had with this nerd,_ the rocker teen thought as she saw Izuku grin uneasily for a moment. She had to wonder just what did he recall when the yellow haired teen made his question. Most likely, it was the incidents with her smile.

"Y-yeah, a few times."

"See? You just gotta get used to that part of her, it can get a bit annoying, but it also gets pretty fun at times with her around like that." A small shape of a smile was again noticeable on Izuku's face as he gave a nod. Despite how idiotic he could be at times even when his brain is functioning correctly, he seemed to know how to lighten up a tense atmosphere as long as he didn't cause it. With greetings said and done, Jirou started walking away from the gates of UA.

"I'm sure it would be fun to spend all day by the gates of our currently closed school, but we've got places to be." She then continued walking through the streets towards the Corusukanto ward, with a Kaminari and Izuku catching up after a moment. They were quite the peculiar company to have around for a modern rock concert and the hours before then, but that meant that the day was worth looking forward to.

* * *

Unlike the mostly silent walk back to the station a day back, the way towards the Corusukanto ward was almost completely filled with a fluid conversation the whole way through. Aside from a regular exchange of questions about each other and small talk, the issue of Izuku's fingers after the physical assignment two days ago was brought up, since they were still slightly bandaged last time Jirou saw him. Apparently the injury wasn't as bad as other uses of his power and only needed them on one day, with no scaring or deformation apparent on them. Jirou noticed how lightly Midoriya talked about the subject, as if he were just talking about the schoolwork or the weather. It slightly disturbed her, though a part of her did admire how willing he was to push himself despite the risks involved.

All the while, the rocker teen led the trio through the streets leading to the ward, knowing the area as well as the area around her home thanks to her family's frequent visits to the area, whether it was for a concert, recording or rehearsal. Truth be told, she wasn't taking the straight path to the venue of the upcoming concert since there were a couple of places she wanted to stop by before the concert started, and they had more than enough time to make a small detour.

Eventually, the topic of Deep Dope came up. Jirou noticed that Izuku seemed to hang on to any word they said about the band, which if she had to be honest with herself, she found it quite funny considering that the nerd didn't have any idea who they were less than an hour ago. Either he really liked the song after all, or was just trying to get an idea of how they were in order to not get caught off guard at the concert. _At least he's being enthusiastic about this._

About half an hour after the three of them had started walking, they found themselves in a busy street with small crowds of people walking in and out of buildings of all kinds; stores, restaurants, small shops, and even some businesses still seemed to be active today. They stopped in front of what seemed to be a small café decorated with music iconography on the outside, such as a few notes and instruments surrounding the entrance sign. It read _Tonal Cafe,_ one of Jirou's few spots she liked to visit whenever she came to this ward. The three entered the shop and took one of the few available tables in the place, which was now even more filled with all kinds of music based décor now that they were inside: from instruments and vinyl albums on display, to photos and memorabilia of local and famous musicians alike, the small place had a solid theme in mind which fascinated both Kaminari and Izuku, though each for different reasons.

"Hey! That's the guitar that Wavelength used to play, right?" The yellow haired teen noticed one of the instruments displayed on a wall, accompanied by a picture of an attractive redhead woman with long braids wearing a dark blue tank top, but her most notable characteristic were the fingers on her hands, in full display and bent into a variety of impossible shapes including the titular wavelength. Jirou had to stifle a laugh at seeing Kaminari almost swoon at the sight of the now-retired guitarist.

"Yeah, cause that's what you first noticed about her, right?" A faint blush could be seen going through Kaminari's face, who decided to stay silent instead of digging himself a deeper grave this time. Izuku found himself examining the apparent quirk on the woman, then giving a few looks to other portraits of people who displayed their quirks on them: a picture next to some drumsticks had a man who seemed to have a finger in the middle of tapping up and down on a desk, shown by the motion blur on it. Another portrait next to a vinyl had another man, this one with his hand producing small, colorful sparks in front of his face. One next to an album cover even had a woman whose face seemed mutated into having feline ears, whiskers, eyes and some fur. Besides them and a few others though, the rest of the portraits seemed to display people that, if they had a quirk, then they did not bother to showcase it. Either that or they were on the legs, like Iida did. Jirou was already familiar with most of these portraits, one in particular fitting the word perfectly, but she didn't expect Midoriya to be so interested in these people, barely giving a look at the instrument or object besides them, though it wasn't surprising either.

"Hey nerd, see something you like?"

"H-huh? Oh, I was just watching some of the portraits here. Though some of these people are clearly displaying their quirks, even if they seem to be activated, so I guess I was wondering whether they actually use them in music." _Well, I was not expecting that today._ There were a few things to be said on the use of quirks in the music industry… but she didn't want to miss a chance to mess a bit with the curious teen before that.

"I meant if there was anything you liked on the menu. Where did that come from?" Izuku seemed to barely stop himself from overreacting, settling on a sheepish frown and scratching the back of his head.

"You two make this too easy. Anyways, can't use them for live performances, but music videos and album recordings? As long as it isn't dangerous, it is fair game. And it's not like the mutation quirk users have a choice in the matter." This actually encouraged most quirked musicians to stick to a quirkless style for playing and recording music, since many early quirked bands had albums that sounded incredible, but then completely flunked at the live performances which disappointed their fans, painted a negative image on the artists, and slowly burned their careers. A disrupted life due to what seemed to be an advantage. Somehow, a part of Jirou understood that well.

"So I guess that the one that Kaminari noticed… Wavelength..."

"Mostly used her stretchy fingers to show off her guitar skills in the music videos. A bit scary, but entertaining if I do say so myself" Kaminari said at the mere mention of the name before going back to the menu. Jirou decided to ignore that and turned back towards Izuku.

"Also, focus. You still need to see if there's something you'd like to order."

"Oh, Right…" Jirou found it funny how Midoriya occasionally gave a slight blush whenever she managed to mess with the teen like that. She wasn't completely sure what caused that, whether it was just that he found it hard to talk with girls, or just how he found her intimidating outside of that even, which still seemed to surface at times. Regardless, the hearing teen had to admit that Izuku being like that around her was strangely endearing and more importantly, it was oddly flattering. She gave an amused smile at the blushing teen, which in turn made him freeze up again as the red in his skin increased in color and intensity, before hiding his face behind the menu.

"Hey Midoriya, you ok there, mate?" Kaminari noticed the green haired teen's reddened face, with a bit of a tremble barely noticeable on it, before turning towards Jirou and catching her smile for a moment before it went back to a frown. He made an amused grin and went back checking the menu.

"Y-yeah, I'm ok thanks!" Izuku blurted out with a crack in his voice at Kaminari, and probably Jirou as well, before composing himself and turning his face back to the menu. Jirou barely avoided laughing at Midoriya's awkward shift in volume and tone.

 _What did I say about him? Oh yeah, flustered nerd, all right._

* * *

If there was one complaint Jirou had about the Tonal Café whenever she went there, it was that the actual food, while creatively decorated according to the theme of the place, was a bit lacking on taste by comparison. This sentiment seemed to be shared by Izuku and Kaminari once they made their way out of the café to continue towards the concert venue. Aside from that, the conversation this time centered on Izuku and Jirou's joint assignment. All what Kaminari knew about it previously was that they passed and that Jirou thought highly of Izuku's performance there, missing it due to an overuse of his quirk causing his brain to be short circuited prior to their turn, a fact that Jirou did not let go of while the conversation continued much to his dismay. After a while of walking though the streets and alleys of Corusukanto, Kaminari noticed a few flashing lights at a building before recognizing what it was.

"Hey, we've still got some time till the concert, right? I think we should stop by that arcade for a while." Jirou turned to face the place that Kaminari was talking about and thought about it for a moment. There was still well over an hour till they even had to be there for the concert, and in any case there was a game that she had been thinking of trying out for a while. It had been a while since she came here, so she might as well make good use of the time they had.

"Sure, why not." Jirou said with a neutral expression before Kaminari dashed into the building, leaving her and Izuku behind.

"Hey, Midoriya. You planning on just standing there?"

"Oh! Sorry about that, I'm going in too. It's just that I haven't been to one of these in… quite a long time now, actually." These arcades had been losing popularity as consoles became more practical and powerful, thus making them sort of a rarity even in Japan as time went on. It wasn't too surprising for Jirou that maybe Izuku's nearest arcade had closed down, or maybe he just lost interest. Still, a longing look could be seen in Izuku's face when he faced back at the place to walk towards it, which inevitably made the rocker teen a bit curious. Kaminari could probably wait for a bit, or maybe he was already playing at some cabinet by himself, so Jirou decided to clear that up for herself.

"Not a fan of arcades?"

"Well, I did play quite a few games whenever I went to the one closest to home. Maybe there's still a high score of mine recorded in the machines now that I remember it." _Or maybe he was a big fan of these places. I guess he really is kind of a big nerd._ Izuku stopped for a moment after saying that, before looking at Jirou for a moment and then giving a small sigh."Once, I tried to get a few classmates to go, Bakugou included, and got laughed at for it. I think I stopped going there shortly after that."

Jirou was caught off guard when the fellow hero in training admitted that to her. She already wondered if his awkwardness and introverted nature were in part due to people like Bakugou just making his life every bit more difficult than it should, but maybe at least he had some people who would help him along. This just made it clear that, more likely than not, he just was unable to make friends worth a damn for a long time. She couldn't say she understood why, or that she got how that felt, but at least a feeling like that was familiar to her. Regardless, she for once left those questions for another day.

"Hey, at least you've got a couple of friends with you this time. Might as well enjoy it while you can instead of hanging on what some jerks did a few years back." She gave Izuku a small smile with that, again flustering him and turning him into a blubbering mess that didn't seem to know how to respond to that. Jirou was at least glad that she was able to prevent him from feeling a bit blue for the time being, and she had to admit that she missed seeing him like that. It was almost as funny as watching Kaminari act like a moron after overusing his quirk, and a small part of her felt complimented to see a guy act like that just because she gave him a smile. After a few seconds of this, Izuku cooled down and smiled back at her.

"Y-yeah, you're right." Still smiling, Jirou turned back towards the arcade and entered the place, Izuku following close behind.

"Thanks, by the way. For, uh… inviting me to go with you two I guess."

"Heh, took you long enough."

* * *

"You two really have never touched anything similar to a musical instrument in your life, haven't you?"

"No, not really. I've seen a few machines like that, but I was never really that interested I guess."

"You actually know how to play the real instruments, how are we supposed to keep up with that?"

"Come on, I only know the basics of most of them. Besides, Izuku did get a higher score on the last one."

"I don't know... My fingers still feel heavy after that one. Besides, it looked quite effortless to you."

The three made their way out of the arcade after several rounds of a few games in there. Going through a bit more old fashioned simple games at first, which Izuku seemed have some experience with, then into some advanced machines for fighting games old and new which Kaminari definitely enjoyed the most out of all of them even if he was only a bit better at them than Midoriya, who admitted to barely playing them back at the local arcade. Lastly, Jirou managed to find the game she was looking for: another iteration of an old game where there were several instrument options for players to chose from and they had to "play" along to the notes onscreen. Of course, Jirou ended up getting the highest scores out of the three in comparison to Kaminari who just didn't seem able to follow along with the guitar despite how much he tried, and Izuku who had pretty much focus completely on following the notes on the keyboard in order to do even follow the rhythm. He caught on eventually, but compared to Kyouka's more natural performance with the bass it was clear that he wasn't good at this. Jirou made a mental note to thank Kaminari later for noticing the place, as she did have some fun after all, and so did the other two apparently.

Once they left, Jirou checked her phone to see how long they had till the concert started. From past experience, Jirou estimated that it would take them about 20 minutes or so to get to the Jiwakusu Hall from here, and the current time on her phone read 3:25 PM. Just enough time for them to get there at the appointed time, as they had to be there by 4:00 PM or risk losing their place in the calling order.

After a while more of walking and conversing through the Corusukanto ward, they arrived at the Jiwakusu Hall. Just as Kyouka remembered it, a few stairs led below street level into a hall filled with posters, signs, bulletin boards and more adverts for upcoming gigs alongside seas of stickers for several bands, both local and popular. A small crowd had already arrived at the place, ranging from other teenagers like them to adults ranging around their thirties. A few concert goers could be seen approaching a select group of people, some of them asking for an autograph of a poster or CD. This wasn't a strange sight in these places: Live Houses were one of the preferred types of venues for musicians to attend alongside other concert goers and fellow musicians, regardless of competition or personal egos.

 _I guess my parents would be mingling with them as well if they were here._

They were just glad to enjoy and support other artists regardless of how big or small they could be. And the place, while not being one for complex decoration, still had an inviting atmosphere for her. A bit of urban art on some of the walls, pillars of brick, and an overall simple feeling was something Jirou could get behind. She reached into her right pocket and pulled out the three guest tickets, giving Kaminari, Midoriya and herself one each mentioning to only show them when they were asked for. During this, she noticed a bit of tension on the latter's face. It wasn't nearly as bad as the one he had prior to the assignment now that she remembered, but it was still palpable. And apparently, she wasn't the only one to notice.

"Dude, you don't look too well. You ok there, Midoriya?"

"Oh, sure. I'm fine, just… a bit nervous, I guess."

"Can't blame ya there. I mean, a walk through the city, a lunch, some games and a concert? Just walk her back to her house and it would be the perfect date, y'know?"

The one thing that Kyouka appreciated about Kaminari's comment was that it made Izuku into a panicking wreck worse than almost everything that she had managed to do herself. Not that it was particularly entertaining this time, as his skin just outright flushed a strong red, broke into a strong sweat and froze in shock with a scared expression on his face. And that was not including the arms trying and failing to cover his miserable state as well as his shaking body, along the sputtering that seemed to convey half words and drowned screams. Kaminari just looked confused at the mess he created before turning to Jirou with the same expression, to which she replied with an annoyed glare and deeper frown than usual.

"Errr… sorry about that. I guess I thought that would be funny and lift his spirits a bit, or something…" Jirou gave a frustrated sigh at this. He might have had good intentions, but Kaminari could really be a moron sometimes. She didn't mind too much that he made Izuku into a mess like that. She did that the first few times they talked, she wasn't one to judge others on that.

Rather, she was annoyed at Kaminari's comparison that he thought that would somehow help Izuku, and that he did so despite having seen how a simple smile had left the green haired teen. Regardless, it wasn't much to lose her cool over, and after a few seconds Izuku managed to calm down, so the damage wasn't anything major.

"D-don't worry about it, Kaminari. Besides, I'm sure it's not… anything like that."

"He wishes it were, and even then Kaminari would just be screwing up at every step of the way." Jirou confirmed with a smirk to the yellow haired teen's dismay. "Now then, if we could actually get in the line and wait for the doors to open—"

"Ummm, Jirou? Do you know where the restrooms are in here? I don't like to admit it, but I haven't gone since we met up in front of UA." Jirou brought her palm to her head when she heard that, before replying:

"Hall on the left side, then take a right, you dolt."

"Hey, I can't exactly control that, you know? But thanks anyways." Kaminari dashed towards the restrooms then, leaving a still nervous Izuku alone with Jirou.

"I guess you now have a reason to be tense again, huh?"

"Sorry, I've never been to a place like this, or just a concert in general."

"Never would have guessed."

"Really? I thought I already told—" Jirou gave Midoriya a smirk before he completed his question, with which he seemed to realize just what was the rocker teen doing, going back into an uneasy silence. The green haired teen then took another look at his ticket, before facing back towards Jirou.

"Hey, Jirou. Why do these tickets say 'Invited Guests: Jirou & Co.'?" _Oh. He really doesn't know, huh?_ He really didn't know about her family name in the local music industry, and it would probably be better to just stay quiet about it. However, dismissing the question lying to him would be unfair if he was able to be honest about being intimidated by her, or if he practically admitted that he had no friends for a long time.

Still, there were quite a few people around them, so she walked away from the crowd and gestured to Izuku to follow her. Just a few buildings away from the Hall and by extension just about everyone in the area, but still in viewing distance seemed like a good place. It seemed to make Izuku a bit nervous, with a bit of sweat visible in his face and a sheepish frown, but Kyouka didn't care right now.

"I hope you know how to keep a secret, since what I'll tell you right now? Never repeat it." The wielder of One for All gave nod in response.

"Yeah, I promise." Kyouka glared at Izuku for a few more seconds before reluctantly telling him:

"Originally they were given to my parents and I as an invitation, but they had stuff to attend to today, so they gave theirs for me to share. They're kind of a big deal in the music industry. It has its perks as you can see, but it can get annoying when people start hounding you because of that." For once, Jirou was the one feeling a bit nervous just saying all this to Midoriya. If she were wrong about him, then it would cause a lot of trouble for her later on. Still, Midoriya's gaze seemed uncharacteristically serious when she told him that, which in a way comforted the purple-eyed teen. For Jirou, his promise was tangibly real.

"So… don't tell anyone, alright? Only Yaoyorozu and Kaminari know already."

"Sure, don't worry about it." As if confirming his statement, Izuku gave her a comfortable smile. Jirou kept her expression serious despite that, but a part of her wished to reply to that with a real smile. Regardless, she stayed stoic as she began to walk back to the venue, Izuku silently following close behind.

 _Momo, Denki and now Izuku. Glad to know for myself that UA does attract nice people._

* * *

Lights.

Crowds.

Music.

Noise.

For a moment, Jirou cursed whoever decided that these kinds of closed spaces were appropriate for bands that varied in volume, had elements of hard rock and a mix of electronic genres in their music, and really liked to test the limits of their audio equipment. For what it was worth, the music and ambience were as enjoyable as one could expect from a Deep Dope concert. The songs were as good as ever, with Jirou and Kaminari often singing along while Izuku managed to follow the odd chorus, and the band really knew how to put on a show. Being quite near the stage of the hall didn't do any favors to the volume though, and the crowd, as small as it could be, in a confined space like this it became obvious that they were enthusiastic about this.

Kaminari didn't seem to mind at all. He just at home in this kind of place and band, doing whatever the more enthusiastic crowd did without missing a beat and singing along, not too badly if Jirou had to be honest. Out of the three, he seemed to be the one enjoying the moment the most.

Izuku… was another story entirely. He seemed to enjoy the music itself well enough, clapping alongside the crowd and could be seen at times with a grin on his face. He also often tried to get into the feeling of the crowd, attempting to follow some of the lyrics and sometimes trying to imitate the crowd around him, but some occasions of wide eyes, loud breaths and bouts of just standing there blankly for half a minute indicated that the poor guy was getting overwhelmed after all.

And if Jirou had to be honest, she understood that. A few of the louder songs with more creative light patterns left her in an awkward state of not really paying attention to the song of the band or whatever she was doing with a blank stare on her face. She recovered from these eventually, but a part of her was starting to wonder whether it was a good idea to bring Izuku along to something that she herself was having a hard time following along.

About an hour into the concert after one of the group's more popular songs, the lights went dark and the band disappeared into the backstage before the lights lit up again on a closed off stage. The concert wasn't quite over yet, but it was time for a brief intermission. Some people went into one of the several surrounding sections of the building, be it to eat, drink, or just to go to the restroom. At Jirou's suggestion, the trio decided to stay where they were, lest other concertgoers take their adequate place.

"Man, they're even better in person than I thought. Quite the cool band, don't you think?" Kaminari's enthusiasm hadn't faded after the initial half of the concert, even if he tried to play it a bit cooler now that he was talking to his companions. Still, it was surprising, if also welcome, to see the yellow-eyed teenager in such an upbeat state.

"Would I have brought you three here if I didn't think they were good?" Jirou said with a relaxed frown on her face.

"I don't know, with how often you seem to like to mess with me at times…"

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Do you really think that I would waste hours of your time for something mediocre? That sounds more like your thing if I'm being honest."

"I… had that one coming, didn't I?" Kaminari said with an increasingly deflated voice and expression.

"Yes."

After bringing down Kaminari's mood for a moment, Jirou turned towards Izuku to her other side. Noticing that, he gave her an uncomfortable smile that seemed to sum up his experience so far. It didn't hurt to ask, though.

"So, do you now regret coming along with us? You don't seem all that comfortable after all."

"…It was noisier and more crowded than I thought it would be." Jirou raised an eyebrow at Midoriya as he talked, which seemed to awkwardly accelerate his speech a bit. "I- I do like the music! P-pretty cool so far but I after a while it did become a bit too much for me." She still found it strange and darkly funny that Midoriya could keep his cool better in a fight against robots, thugs and people who could create explosions at will, but Jirou had experienced a similar feeling throughout the concert.

"I guess that's to be expected." The rocker teen then reached into one of her pockets and took out a pair of earplugs, handing them over to Izuku. "These can help out a bit. Helps make sure your ears don't feel like they've been thrown into a blender when they get really loud." She then turned her head a bit to let Izuku see that she was wearing a pair as well. His mouth opened a little from the surprise at the fact, which made sense to Jirou since for all he knew, she was probably used to this kind of noise.

"What? Did you really think that I would risk an important part of my quirk like that? I thought you were smart when it came down to that subject." Apparently, being questioned and corrected on the matter of quirks in her own way was enough to make Izuku again turn into a sputtering mess, unfortunately for him.

"W-what! Sorry! I didn't mean to— I g-guess I just forgot a-about— I-I mean I sti-still got a… lot to learn— B-but I-I think it's pretty cool that you take care of your q-quirk like that!"

 _Huh, he actually managed to make it comprehensible for others at the end there._

"Ok, slow down a bit, will ya? Don't need you having a nervous breakdown like this in the middle of a crowd." A few gazes were locked unto them, but briefly at best as others went back to their own business. After taking a few breaths and looking around, Izuku managed to calm down before the Earphone Jack user continued.

"Still funny. Anyways, I'll be honest here; I appreciate concerts and all, but I think crowds like this kinda tune me off a bit." Izuku's eyes lit up in realization before replying.

"O-oh! Yeah, I found it strange that you didn't seem as excited for this as Kaminari. I mean, you invited us so I thought you really liked these things."

"To a degree. Live music can be entertaining, but I'd rather much enjoy a few songs in private or at least in a less chaotic place than this. Also, no stink of sweat all over." Izuku gave a small laugh at that before putting in the earplugs that Jirou had given him. "So, try to focus on the music if you want. These crowds are kinda insane at times, so no use following them if you aren't sure of what they're trying to do. Should be easier to just enjoy the music with the earplugs on." At least, that was what helped Jirou on the first few concerts she went to. As much as she liked to see performers live, it was still a bit draining for her to attend a concert like this, and tried to do so only when accompanied, be it with friends or more commonly her parents.

"Thanks, I guess that makes sense. It did surprise me when you invited me to a concert."

"I think you already told me that." Jirou said with a raised eyebrow and some confusion in her voice and mind.

"I-I mean, besides the fact that you would invite me to something like that… from what little I knew about concerts there wasn't any indication that you would be someone who would enjoy them much. Well, besides the costume I guess." Now that Jirou thought about it, she really hadn't indicated that she even liked music in particular to the green-eyed teenager before today. The only thing that hinted such a thing was her Hero Costume, which Izuku did pick up on, but still no guarantees or real proof.

"Huh, didn't know you could figure out a person like that in just a couple of days. You sure that isn't a quirk?" The aloof rocker told to Izuku with a smirk. He might have been right about that, but it was a guess at best. The green haired teen just gave an uneasy laugh in response.

"Hey, even if I didn't enjoy the concert, I think it's been quite fun all this, spending time with you and Kaminari. So I think I could go through it anyways."

"Ow, How sweet of you." Jirou said with a voice dripping in sarcasm, making Izuku's face go red while his expression became a bit confused.

"Yeah, that's the spirit Midoriya!" Kaminari said after recovering from Jirou's quip at his expense. "Besides, you might as well get used to the crowds and noise, since the Sports Festival is just around the corner." In a moment, the atmosphere between the three became that little bit more awkward and heavier, as Izuku faced to a side with a slightly tenser expression, while Jirou just glared daggers at Kaminari. _Oh come on Denki, seriously? Right now?_

"Hey! What did I say wrong?"

* * *

Fortunately, Izuku was able to enjoy the second half of the concert better thanks to his talk with Jirou. He seemed a bit more calmed during the concert, focusing on hearing the music and singing along just for a few choruses, and he didn't freak out as often as before. At least his ears didn't seem to show any signs of damage after the fact. Song selection was still good, Deep Dope were still good performers with an interesting style and combination of genres, and Jirou still managed to enjoy the concert amidst the crowded space and loud fans. Kaminari maybe enjoyed it a bit too much, since his voice, while still functional, was a bit lower than usual and lacking in air, as well as just being overall exhausted. While Jirou and Izuku were a bit tired as well, the electrification user seemed quite a bit close to his moron state without ever shooting a spark of electricity throughout the day, something that Kyouka made a point to bring up frequently on the way back for her amusement. Aside from that, the hour-long way back to UA's gates was considerably more silent than the walks towards the Jiwakusu Hall. Kaminari's hoarse voice didn't help matters with this, though they mostly commented on the concert and Deep Dope. All things considered, Jirou found herself enjoying this day a bit more than she expected, and not just because she got to quip at two easy targets. Eventually, they stopped where they had reunited earlier, with the night now firmly covering the sky.

"Well… this was quite the fun day. Thanks for inviting us to go with you, Jirou. That was pretty cool. Oh, and see ya Midoriya, glad you could come with us. Couldn't have been an easy choice for you." The rocker teen still had to contain herself from laughing at Kaminari's self-induced sore voice, as she still had some business pending with him.

"Wait, you're not coming with us to the station?"

"Nah, the one you use right now doesn't have any more trains scheduled where I can head back home. Thanks though, I'll be fine."

"Oh, ok. See you at the Sports Festival then, Kaminari."

"By the way, thanks for suggesting us to go to the arcade, it was as fun as machines that rot your brain can be."

"Why are you worried? As far as I'm concerned, you seem to think that I have no brains anymore." Kaminari said with a grin directed at Jirou. For once, she let him have this one.

"If you say so, then. See ya, thunderdolt." With that, Kaminari waved at Izuku and Jirou before walking off into the crowd flooded streets of Musutafu. On their side, the unlikely pair began to walk towards the same station that they headed to yesterday. A bit of small talk between the two about the day they had occupied a few minutes of the way towards the station, but just a few minutes before arriving, Izuku noticed something.

"You know, Kaminari was right after all." He said while having a pensive look

"About what? That his brain is already too rotten?" Jirou said with a slight smirk on her face. Those were his words, not hers after all.

"N-no! I mean, his shocks can't help that much, but he seems to be doing all right. Anyways, he said that we should get used to the crowds and noise at the Sports Festival. I… know it is not something that we might want to talk about today, but I think that will help a bit at least." That, she couldn't deny. As much as they had tried to avoid the subject throughout the day, it was still a major event that could lead to great things for the UA students, or create a difficult hurdle to pass. And if Jirou was being honest, she didn't think that her quirk had much potential for an event like that. She frowned a bit more before she gave off a tired sigh.

"Guess you're right about that. One or several million eyes on us, that's pretty hard to ignore. Still, just stressing over it wouldn't have helped much. That's why I decided to take this chance, you know. Even if there wasn't a concert or some other event like that, I would have still asked you guys and Yaoyorozu to come along and just have some fun for once."

"But isn't that a bit neglectful of what the event means to us as future heroes? Especially the first year, where we receive offers for internships with pros? It's pretty much our opening statement to the world after all." _Good thing he's passionate about this. Would have been disappointing to discover otherwise._

"I guess so, but then again you did accept to come here after all." It still felt weird for Jirou to have both of them talking so seriously outside an assignment. The secret about the tickets was one thing; at least she was a bit nervous there while Izuku stayed serious throughout it all. It didn't surprise Jirou too much though; the two of them were quite different from each other, so it was inevitable that they would eventually discuss something this way.

"I mean, it would have been rude to say no after what you did yesterday. And I plan on making up for today the next two days." In that instant, just a few blocks before arriving at the station, realized that his plans seemed to be the same as hers. While she couldn't quite devote the whole next two days to exercising and training, at least the better part of the day and a half were going to be completely dedicated to preparing for the Sports Festival. She stopped for a moment, with Izuku realizing that just a second afterwards and turning back to face her. She gave him a glare for several seconds, hoping that her intended message would be obvious to the sometimes-clueless Midoriya. When he just shot her a confused stare in return, Jirou gave another sigh and her right palm to her forehead before stating it clearly:

"What did you think I was going to do the next two days? Sit on my butt playing the guitar all day?" This time, Izuku got the message loud and clear.

"Ah! Sorry Jirou, I didn't mean to come off like that! I was just worried that you wouldn't be prepared for the Festival." A higher than usual tone of voice accompanied Izuku's apology, as well as a bit of shaking and a distressed facial expression. While Jirou didn't appreciate her fellow hero in training seemingly thinking that she wouldn't do much to prepare for the festival without him telling her to do so, it wasn't that big of a deal for her, at least not enough for him to look genuinely disturbed by what he implied.

"I know, don't worry about it." Jirou then continued walking alongside Izuku to the station while continuing their talk along the way. "I appreciate your concern over that, but I'm pretty sure everyone has the same thing on their minds, so don't go thinking that we aren't going to do our best out there. Your quirk has a lot of potential, even if it is quite glassy, so that will be fun to watch."

"Thanks, I guess. I'm still trying to find a way to use it so that it doesn't break my body, but so far it's been dumb luck whether I manage to do so."

"Well, I hope you get it down by the time it comes around, or else you're probably gonna have a bit of trouble there."

"Yeah, I know."

Another minute of silence passed between the two before they arrived at the station, tonight absolutely packed with people coming back home from Golden Week events or even heading towards them. Jirou checked the time until the next train for her way back home arrived, which was at about twenty-one minutes. Izuku also checked the board to know when his next train arrived, which from his reaction didn't seem too close either. A few minutes passed, during which Jirou thought about the upcoming event. She didn't feel ready at all for the Sports Festival, but chances were that if they were given double the time to prepare for the competition then she still would feel woefully underprepared. She was competing against the likes of Momo, Todoroki, Bakugou, Iida, Tokoyami, and Midoriya just to name a few, and that was not including whatever was in store for them from 1-B. They went through the same trials as them to get into UA and passed, and even worse they had no idea just what they could do.

When she thought about it, the risk of failure there was incredibly high.

But that didn't mean she wasn't going her hardest to try and find a way to succeed in the end.

"H-hey, you ok there, Jirou?" Her eyes widened as Izuku's voice brought her out from her trance, before turning to face the green-eyed boy next to her. For one, he was the one bringing her down from the clouds, it seemed.

"Yeah, still a bit nervous about the Sports Festival. "

"I guessed so. I could say the same about myself." At this point, Kyouka had an idea. She and Izuku seemed able to work together, to back up each other as shown in the assignment. There was no guarantee, or even hint that there would be any kind of team competition in which they would be able to work together, and besides a part of Jirou wanted to compete against the awkward hero in training if possible.

But at the very least prior to that, they could attempt to work together to improve themselves.

"Hey, you said you still needed to get your quirk to work without tossing your arms through the blender, right?" Izuku's face displayed a smile and wide eyes when the earphone jack user hinted at her assistance to help control his quirk.

"What? Oh yeah, you have any ideas?"

"Well, not right now, but if you're gonna be training these next two days for the Sports Festival, I might be able to help you." Said features disappeared for a moment from Izuku's expression just to be replaced by a raised eyebrow and a confused frown.

"What do you mean, Jirou?"

"It's simple, really. The day before the Sports Festival, we can train and help out each other. Best to have someone to monitor how much you improve, don't you think?" For a moment, it seemed like Izuku was going to go back into a panic at the suggestion, his cheeks turning red and his arms trembling for a second. The fact that he was able to change that into a sheepish smile with only a slight tint of pink on his face made things a whole lot easier for Jirou.

"S-sure! It could be useful to improve our quirk use and get prepared for the actual event, so it seems good to me." At that moment, an alert on the board signaled that Izuku's train was to arrive shortly. It was a shame that they could not plan the joint training right now, but they were probably better off planning it through the text chat later. She gave Izuku a smile before he left for the train, which did manage to get him to stare for a moment with a blush, if nothing else.

"I'll text you the details tomorrow. Won't miss anything this time, so if you get lost or get the time wrong it's you fault this time. See ya, nerd."

"O-okay! I guess I'll see you in two days then. Oh, and thanks for… well, everything today. I had a lot of fun. See ya, Jirou."

And like that, Izuku Midoriya disappeared into a crowd of people. While the oceans of people making their way through the station didn't help, Jirou discovered just how easy it was to lose sight of such a plain looking guy in a crowd. _Good thing we didn't separate at the concert, or we would have been in trouble._

On the train back home, Jirou found herself again staring at the window, with earbuds playing some of her favorite music. This time, she listened to a band from before she was born called Earphone Euphoria. Some pretty good rock beats, an amazing vocalist, and some pretty solid composition made this band one of Kyouka's favorites. And yet, she couldn't completely tune out her brain right now. Once more, her thoughts focused on a fellow hero student with green hair and eyes who was full of surprises.

There was a lot to be said about Izuku Midoriya after getting to know him better throughout the day. It didn't seem like a big deal back then to Kyouka, but he was thankful enough to her for standing up to Bakugou for him that he didn't mind going to an event unlike any he had been to before. Getting to learn that he was quite possibly friendless some time ago before coming to UA cleared that up for her, since he probably had to try to stand up all by himself to people much like Bakugou everyday. The same teen had also turned out to like hard rock combined with electronic music, and after some talking managed to enjoy a loud, cramped concert despite his withdrawn nature. There were two things that stood out to Kyouka Jirou the most though.

Midoriya seemed very much willing and capable of braving new experiences or trials if needed from him. He did well in every simulation assignment he went through so far, despite any initial reluctance he might have had, which seemed to translate well into the new experiences he went through today, even if he was nervous at first. Jirou admired that from him, if she had to be honest.

Most of all, Kyouka was surprised that, during these past three days she had grown fond of an awkward, yet ultimately funny and sweet nerd.

* * *

 **InazumaFrost/LynShimo here, and I hope you enjoyed this new chapter of String Instruments and Notebooks!**

 **Whew, now that was a doozy. This is the largest singular chapter of a work, fanfiction or not, that I have ever done. Clocking at over 11k words, there are a few chapters down the line that might become even longer, but with the quality to match. This one was a tough one to write. Between adding Kaminari to the group, going through a multipart hangout, and, oh, I don't know, going through the PoV and trying to plant the seeds of expansion upon the character of Kyouka Jirou, a character that has been barely used in the manga despite her popularity, this chapter was something else to write. Watch all of this crumble around me as Horikoshi innevitably introduces her actual character and backstory in… lets give it a year or two at most, if not less.**

 **There's also the fact that life decided to be particularly heavy between the release of chapter 2 and this one, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. One monthly chapter seems to be the pace I'll be going for the time being because of this, regardless of how long or short they manage to be. And due to a particularly important event coming on February, it is entirely likely that January might go without a new chapter. Sorry about that.**

 **I wanted to thank you all for the massive support this fic has been receiving. I didn't expect this to blow up like it has done so far, and as always your feedback and criticisms are highly valuable to me. Was there any part you considered particularly enjoyable? Let me know! And I hope to see you for the next chapter.**

 **PS: Shoutout to crazyman185 (author of Cubicity, one of the absolute top tier BnHA shipfics around and good listener and talker for story plans) and BlackJoker (discord pal, great ideas guy who continues writing 1/3** **rd** **of the plot of this story). This story would be much worse without you two.**

 **EDIT: While I already mentioned it on my profile, I guess that it is more likely for my readers to know this if I announce it in the chapters proper: The fic has a cover image now! Drawn by nocunoct from Tumblr and Pixiv, an amazing artist overall. I cannot thank him enough for the ship art he made, and you can send him some love over here:**

 **Pixiv: https /www pixiv net / member php ? id=18266374**

 **Tumblr: http /nocunoct tumblr com/**


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